I’m beginning to get a hold of this trading stuff but still got loads of questions lol.
First I was trading today and checked the economic calender to see that all the US retail data was coming out about 1ish. I decided not to trade and close all my sell against the dollar trades even though the indicators looked good and see exactly what would happen. I was trading the AUS, GPB, and the JPY and all of them shot up really high when the data came out as it was underwhelming for the US. I just wanted to know if anyone is able to get that data as it happens and get in on the trade before it rises to its peak or is it more of a gamble really?
Also what leverage do you all use, I was thinking when I open up my real account to go for 1:100 but with money management would I be better with higher leverage?
Forex factory calendar will give you the results from news events a couple of seconds after the event. As far as leverage most people would say go for 2 to 1 or 5 to 1 at most. so if you have 1000 in your account you should only trade 2k or a 5k position. I personally use 400 to 1 leverage, i think in america the most leverage you can get is 50 to 1.
US economic releases market spikes lasts for a couple of seconds, this is a period of huge volatility and low liquidity when market entries are almost impossible or heavily slippaged. Most news traders use low latency software which gives them advantage over retail traders like us. I do play sometimes on US fundamentals with Hotforex, but it’s comlex system with opposite orders, SL and margins that can end up in losses, though.
You’d better to stay away from news trading at early stage of your trading path because any wrong trade can lead to a MC easily
In my opinion trading economic news is a 50/50 gamble. You can’t know what the figure will be so you have to take a position based on a guess. Once the data is released you will see a lot of volatility and price spikes as positions are adjusted. You can get in after, but you either missed a good chunk of the move or if you enter too soon you will get hit by a reversal. In the end it is a decision you need to make.