Economic calendar

A good trader keeps up with the most valuable indicators. You can do the same with our live economic calendar.

Updated October 23, 2026

What's a fundamental part of trading? Information!

We are talking about anything that moves stocks, foreign currency and other assets. You get the latest on the economy, finance and politics in one feed.

All three push your asset around. Keep up with the releases and you avoid most of the ugly surprises and the losses that follow.

What's an economic calendar?

An economic calendar helps you find the latest events and most important news.

Learning about them will shape your future trades and help you make the most money possible.

The most important and famous traders use economic calendars to keep up with the world and its changes.

It is a staple for forex traders. Everyone else can use it too: binary options, CFDs, digital options and other instruments react to the same releases.

When should I use an economic calendar?

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You can use our economic calendar as much as you want and whenever you want.

It helped many traders before (me included), and we hope it can help you too!

There are no restrictions on our economic calendar. Open it whenever you want, as often as you want.

Don’t obsess over financial indicators. Use the information we provide to forecast what will happen. Consider all the data before pulling the trigger on a trade.

And don't box yourself in when using the economic calendar. It works for binary options and forex, but digital options and other financial instruments trade the same headlines.

Think of an economic calendar as a hammer. It’s one more tool in your toolbox! Use our calendar along with other things you have to build something great.

How to use an economic calendar

The best way to use an economic calendar is to keep up with trading news.

We recommend checking it regularly so you don’t miss out on any developments that may affect your financial position.

Why do you have to look at an economic calendar? Because data changes all the time and news keeps developing. For example, one downward trend forced the S&P500 to go down 30% in twenty-two days!

You can’t just look at an economic calendar, though. You have to understand what’s going on there.

You’ll find volatility, notation, and three other indicators in our economic calendar. We’ll talk about them down below.

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What indicators will I find on an economic calendar?

Expected Volatility

This indicator is the most important. It’ll show you how much influence the event has on an asset or market.

That means high expected volatility can change the price of an asset (for better or worse) in little to no time.

And your whole trading portfolio can suffer if you never check for changing volatility.

There’s a color scheme to help you understand the expected volatility of each item on the calendar:

Transparent and green mean little to no volatility; for example, a European country changes how they calculate house prices.

Yellow is for medium volatility; for example, South American countries introduce new soy regulations that may increase or decrease the value of that asset.

Red is for high volatility; for example, war breaks out in the Middle East, and oil stocks tank or soar depending on what happens next. The Iraq-Iran war drove the price of oil by 100% in America!

Actual indicator

The actual indicator will show data affecting events or news related to the price of an asset or currency pair.

Why is this indicator important? Because it’ll help you make sense of what’s going on and how the news affects an asset.

It’ll show you why a piece of news is creating a change around the financial instrument you want to know.

Forecast indicator

A forecast indicator is a projection. It is not a sure thing, just something that may happen in the future.

That doesn’t mean it’s a gamble or a wild prediction. It’s often very accurate because it depends on factual information we already have.

Then again, I trust few forecasts on their own. Prior indicators usually tell me more about where an asset is heading.

Prior indicator

Prior indicators show how previous events affected an asset. Looking at the past throws light on the future, and in finance that holds more often than not.

Don’t underestimate the importance of this type of indicator!

The past often repeats itself in the future, and knowing how previous indicators shaped current events will help you understand what will happen next.

Reading a release: actual, forecast and prior

The three numbers only mean something next to each other. Say the calendar lists a US inflation print for 12:30 GMT, forecast 3.0%, prior 3.1%. The release comes out at 3.4%. What you trade is the gap: actual minus forecast, so 3.4 minus 3.0 leaves plus 0.4 points against expectations. A hotter number than the market priced in usually lifts the dollar and hits index futures within minutes. Had it printed 2.7%, the sign flips and so does the reaction.

Two practical notes. First prints get revised, so a red row can reverse inside the hour. And spreads widen right at the release, which is why plenty of traders wait for the first candle to close instead of firing on the number itself. Size the position before the event, not while the chart is jumping.

Conclusion

Now you know what an economic calendar is and how to read it before a trade.

Don't worry if you fail to understand everything you see in the economic calendar. Keep using it, because that is the only way this clicks.

Look at our blog posts and learn more about trading so you can get more out of this tool. And compare regulated brokers before you put real money behind a release.

FAQ

What is a live economic calendar?

It is a feed of scheduled economic, financial and political events with the numbers attached to each one. Every row carries an expected volatility rating and three figures: actual, forecast and prior. You use it to know what is coming before it hits the chart.

How does the calendar work in 2026?

Events are listed by time with a colour marking expected impact. Transparent and green rows barely move anything. Yellow rows can shift a single market. Red rows, such as a war headline or a central bank decision, move whole asset classes in minutes.

Which numbers matter most?

The gap between actual and forecast. A print that lands on expectations is usually a non-event, because the market already priced it. A miss in either direction is what creates the move. The prior figure tells you whether the trend is holding.

What should I check before a trade?

Four things: the release time, the volatility colour, the forecast, and the prior. Then decide in advance what you do if the number beats and what you do if it misses. Deciding after the print rarely ends well.

Can I use it for crypto and forex?

Yes. The calendar is instrument neutral. Forex reacts most directly to rate and inflation data, indices follow growth and jobs numbers, and crypto tends to track the same liquidity story through the dollar. Binary and digital options traders use the same rows.