market movement, margin call and time

this is my first time forex trading. i guessed that the us retail sales would have went above market expections so this morning when the retail data would be released i went to gamble on this. the first thing i found strange was the the market spiked in the correct direction like 5-6 seconds before the retail sales data was released. what happened there? the second thing was that, according the briefing.com, the actual retail sales went like 5x what the market expections were but the actual number of pips i gained was only like 50. is this normal?

also, if i had 100 dollars and put 70 dollars into euro/usd at 50:1 on oanda, when would a margin call be executed? thanks for the help.

I noticed the early drop also but I was too busy watching the candle to close out my buy at 13240 :-(.....as for the number of pips, I got 70pips but could have got 80 if I waited until 13190....

is it normal for it to drop early? when there is a release how much does it normally change in pips?

At least from what I have seen, this is the first time ive traded the news when it dropped early, but it usually drops at the same time or a minute or 2 after....there is no set # of pips that it moves...more important news will have a bigger affect on the currencies involved....if you position yourself the night before the release I think u can get the most pips depending on the situation.....imho

how much does an important news like maybe nonfarm payrolls give like an average range?

the nfp shot eur/usd down like 70/80 pips and then there was , I think a consumer sentiment thingy afterward that shot up a little over that....

Focus more on how far off the numbers are, not the number itself if you are worried about news trading and how it might effect your trades. Look at the last NFP, look at far off the number was yet price still went down. Im sure a lot of people took long positions. So look at how far the numbers are off.