A few more details on how I’ve been doing the pre news “scalping”
Find a major news event. Talking rate decisions, employment, retail sales, cpi/inflation, the big ones.
I am finding that if you look about 1-3 sessions before the news is released, you will find a swing that represents the market sentiment with respect to the upcoming news event. To this end, I think the most useful indicator I have is a session hours indicator that I have from FXCM Trading Station 2.
For example, this last week, there was the FOMC statement and rate decision for the US, as well as the rate decision for the NZD a few hours after the US decision (last week of April 2015). There was a really nice swing to the topside in the NZDUSD pair, and I rode a long position that started at the beginning of the Asian session (about 10pm Colorado time) the day before the big rate decisions were released.
The market sentiment was to sell USD, as everyone and their 3rd cousin was expecting the Fed rate to remain “unhiked”.
Now here is me being greedy… I exited half my position about 2-3 minutes before the US rate decision (noon in Colorado) for about 60-70 pips. BUT I LEFT HALF MY POSITION OPEN EXPECTING TO SEE A BIG TOPSIDE REACTION! Got the opposite reaction upon news release, but with the expected number (0.25%). That move stopped me out at break even… But - I knew that the NZDUSD pair needed to quickly react to the common sentiment that the NZD rate would remain flat, and there would be a sell off of NZD, so I waited for the NZD news to hit, gave it about 2-3 minutes to settle, and then sold the NZDUSD pair for a 30-40 pip gain, rode the position to close of Aussie session, during Asian session.
A long story short — I would have an early heart attack if I continued getting into a position right before the news was released, which is what I was doing when I started this thread. I am finding that looking 1-3 sessions before major news, and tracking the sentiment of the crowds pre-news, is a bit less stress inducing, and over all more consistent.