Several scheduled events can land on the same day, and the market doesn't take turns
Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2026 10:34 am
A single data release is a manageable event. Three in a row, say Canadian jobs, US payrolls and a central bank speaker, create a day where volatility doesn't fully settle before the next one starts.
The calendar often clusters events. Quarter-ends, first Fridays of the month, central bank meeting weeks, and holiday-shortened weeks all produce stacks of releases.
Spreads stay elevated through the whole stretch. A scalper who waited for the first event to settle then runs into the second. The normal calm between events never arrives.
Position risk compounds as well. A trade that survives the first release can be caught by the next one.
A practical approach is marking the calendar for days with multiple high-impact items and treating those days differently: smaller size, wider filters, or no trading in the affected window.
Looking back over a year of results by number of high-impact events per day often shows a clear pattern. Days with two or more tend to be worse for strategies built for calm conditions.
Do the best and worst days in the log line up with the calendar?
The calendar often clusters events. Quarter-ends, first Fridays of the month, central bank meeting weeks, and holiday-shortened weeks all produce stacks of releases.
Spreads stay elevated through the whole stretch. A scalper who waited for the first event to settle then runs into the second. The normal calm between events never arrives.
Position risk compounds as well. A trade that survives the first release can be caught by the next one.
A practical approach is marking the calendar for days with multiple high-impact items and treating those days differently: smaller size, wider filters, or no trading in the affected window.
Looking back over a year of results by number of high-impact events per day often shows a clear pattern. Days with two or more tend to be worse for strategies built for calm conditions.
Do the best and worst days in the log line up with the calendar?