"Must Watch" for economic and corporate data

[Guest RedSwift]

Hello,

I have recently opened a live account having opened a demo account 15 months ago and spending some time learning the basics of trading. There is obviously a lot of information available to support decision making but I am wondering if there are any particular economic or corporate news releases that are a "must read" for investors/traders. This may be too vague a question as I guess it depends on your trading strategy, but any advice you can give is greatly appreciated.

[Caseynotes]

Hi @RedSwift, you definitely want to check an economic calendar every morning to see what data is due to be released that day, note down anything connected to the markets you trade and the region you are in as it's going to be relevant as is any important data concerning the US economy.

If you are looking at corporate stocks it's a good idea to keep track of earnings releases which can be the catalyst for big moves, especially when the chart is lined up for a break at the same time. For large companies these guys are a good follow on twitter and give notice for the week ahead and daily for before open and after close data releases.

For everything else check the weekly COT report to see where the large speculators are heading.

https://cotbase.com/

The future is never written in stone but praemonitus, praemunitus.

[Guest RedSwift]

Hi @Caseynotes, really appreciate that thank you 👍

[Guest RichB-Trader]

3 hours ago, Caseynotes said:

Hi @RedSwift, you definitely want to check an economic calendar every morning to see what data is due to be released that day, note down anything connected to the markets you trade and the region you are in as it's going to be relevant as is any important data concerning the US economy.

If you are looking at corporate stocks it's a good idea to keep track of earnings releases which can be the catalyst for big moves, especially when the chart is lined up for a break at the same time. For large companies these guys are a good follow on twitter and give notice for the week ahead and daily for before open and after close data releases.

For everything else check the weekly COT report to see where the large speculators are heading.

https://cotbase.com/

The future is never written in stone but praemonitus, praemunitus.

Hi,

 

Am I right in saying anything below 0 is short selling bias and the “Smart” money is the large speculators? Also can you get a COT for the FTSE? Thanks

[Caseynotes]

 

33 minutes ago, RichB-Trader said:

Am I right in saying anything below 0 is short selling bias and the “Smart” money is the large speculators? Also can you get a COT for the FTSE? Thanks

@RichB-Trader  yes, this is net positions short or long so Large speculators are net short AUD in the example below.

Notice that Commercials are the mirror image of the Large speculators, this is because it is the Commercials that are providing the contracts to the large speculators, they provide them on their own terms and do very well out of it but it is the Large speculators you want to keep an eye on, whether they are net short or long and if they are increasing or decreasing their exposure.

Investment banks, large banks, pension funds, hedge funds are all able to act as a commercial and issue contracts and register them on the exchange but they all also have their own trading wing and the large speculators are the registered traders of the banks, hedge funds and pension funds as well as other sizable institutions. 

The COT data is CME orientated so US based and don't look at Ftse specifically however the US indices weigh on all the other indexes so are very relevant. 

 

 

[JamesIG]

for stocks you always want to keep an eye out for prominent RNS alerts for UK stock. You can see these in the News Trading section here...

This is available from the left hand 'News Alert' section.