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Central bank decision day is a different game from the start

On the day of a major rate decision, the market behaves differently from the open. Positioning, caution, and speculation shape price long before the announcement. Ranges may be narrower in the morning, then explode in the afternoon.

For scalpers, the risk is twofold. The pre-announcement quiet encourages complacency, and the post-announcement chaos punishes it. The press conference adds a second wave, sometimes reversing the move from the statement.

A cautious plan includes stopping all trading before the release, waiting for the press conference to finish, and resuming only after volatility subsides. Another option is to skip the day entirely.

If trading through the event is part of the plan, use reduced size and wider stops, and accept a worse fill.

Collect data on past decision days. Measure the range, spread, and slippage during the statement and the press conference. The numbers often show that the risk-reward is poor.

How is a central bank day handled in the trading plan, and does the data support that approach?

For years I treated decision days like any other, and the afternoons taught me otherwise. The morning on one ECB day gave me three clean small trades in a 20 pip range, so I got comfortable and raised my size, and then the statement spiked the pair 45 pips in under a minute and the press conference reversed most of it. I was stopped out on both sides within twenty minutes.

My plan now has three parts. I stop opening trades about 30 minutes before the release, I close anything still open unless it is at breakeven with a stop in place, and I do not trade again until the press conference has been running for at least twenty minutes. If I feel the urge to trade the first move, I write down the price and watch what would have happened.

The data from those notes was convincing. Over about a dozen decision days, the first move reversed more than half the time, and my spread widened to three times normal for several minutes.