Tuesdays often carry high-impact data for my pairs: UK labour figures, German ZEW, sometimes US releases. My rules for those mornings get written on Monday night.
Before London: I list every release with its London time and mark a blackout from five minutes before until spreads return to normal, usually two to five minutes after. Any open position is closed before the blackout starts, regardless of profit.
During the session: size after the first release is 50 percent of normal for the next thirty minutes. No new pairs, even if the data creates a big move on something I do not usually trade. Only setups that were written on the sheet before the release.
After a big surprise: I wait at least fifteen minutes before any entry. The first move after a surprise often reverses, and I do not have an edge in guessing which way.
What I do not do: trade the release itself, widen stops to survive the spike, or add a trade because the morning was quiet and the data "should" give movement.
These rules are dull, and on some Tuesdays they make me miss a nice move. Over a year, though, Tuesday heroics were one of my most expensive habits, and the rules took that cost away.
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Rules I follow on high-impact Tuesday data
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LondonScalper
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Shadow Trader
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Re: Rules I follow on high-impact Tuesday data
LondonScalper, the UK labour figures make Tuesday awkward for anyone who trades the London open, because they print at 07:00. A blackout from 06:55 until spreads settle sits right on top of the first minutes of the session, so on those days I build my opening range from 07:05 instead.
I also put a number on spreads returning to normal. Mine is a GBPUSD spread under 1.5 times its median for the hour before the release, held for a full minute, which usually happens two to four minutes after the print.
The 50 percent size rule raises a question when releases stack. ZEW lands at 10:00 London, so on a morning with UK data at 07:00 and German data at 10:00 I restart the half size clock after each one.
On waiting after a big surprise, I agree with the fifteen minutes but found it hard to say what counts as big. I now call it a surprise when the headline figure falls outside the range between the highest and lowest economist forecast, which I note the night before.
Do you treat a revision to the previous month as part of the surprise? On UK wages the revision has moved sterling more than the new figure a few times.
I also put a number on spreads returning to normal. Mine is a GBPUSD spread under 1.5 times its median for the hour before the release, held for a full minute, which usually happens two to four minutes after the print.
The 50 percent size rule raises a question when releases stack. ZEW lands at 10:00 London, so on a morning with UK data at 07:00 and German data at 10:00 I restart the half size clock after each one.
On waiting after a big surprise, I agree with the fifteen minutes but found it hard to say what counts as big. I now call it a surprise when the headline figure falls outside the range between the highest and lowest economist forecast, which I note the night before.
Do you treat a revision to the previous month as part of the surprise? On UK wages the revision has moved sterling more than the new figure a few times.