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Market Information and Economic Commentary

  • #1
  • First Post: Oct 19, 2007 6:11pm Oct 19, 2007 6:11pm
Million Dollar Question: where do you get your daily (or weekly) understanding of market movements and economic developments? Most traders who do not utilize some sort of arbitrage or static technical system need to understand what's "going on", particularly in the short term. Where do you get your info from? TV? Online versions of publications? Several sources? Please post here with reasons, 1K brethren.

I for one, have the Economist delivered weekly to my mailbox. Quality writing, good editors, educated and reasonable as well as entertaining at times.
Virtue finds and chooses the mean. Aristotle, Ethica Nichomachea
  • #2
  • Oct 19, 2007 8:46pm Oct 19, 2007 8:46pm
I just read. After I am finished reading I read some more. Then more, then more, and a little more. Even when I am sitting in an office or standing in line I am on my Iphone reading market commentary and stories.

Sources are typically Bloomberg, fxstreet, dailyfx, etc...

It is a very good idea to read articles both for and against trains of thought. If someone writes about the EUR/USD going to 1.70 I want to read another story about why it should go to 1.10

Obviously that last example was a bit extreme, but I am sure you catch my drift.

Then I consult my charts, draw in what I see, post brief text and charts to a pdf and voila.

Wash, rinse, repeat
  • #3
  • Oct 19, 2007 9:43pm Oct 19, 2007 9:43pm
Quoting Plutonite
Million Dollar Question: where do you get your daily (or weekly) understanding of market movements and economic developments? Most traders who do not utilize some sort of arbitrage or static technical system need to understand what's "going on", particularly in the short term. Where do you get your info from? TV? Online versions of publications? Several sources? Please post here with reasons, 1K brethren.

I for one, have the Economist delivered weekly to my mailbox. Quality writing, good editors, educated and reasonable as well as entertaining at times.
The Economist is great - alas it takes a week to get here by post, so I get it - as well as the WSJ, Barron's, and the FT - online. Also Bloomberg's, though certainly not for the writing, which is generally workman-like, but not very pleasing. But I tend to spend very little time on current events outside news releases; I find my time much better spent reading history - as just about everything we go through is a rehash of similar past events but with a slightly different sauce - as well as any interesting information I can dig up on different cultures, as the dominant characteristics of different cultures tend to change very slowly over time (e.g. the irrigation culture of China as say vs the riverine culture of Western Europeans).
  • #4
  • Oct 20, 2007 6:56am Oct 20, 2007 6:56am
Quoting Plutonite
Million Dollar Question: where do you get your daily (or weekly) understanding of market movements and economic developments?
I look at the charts. Everything that is true and believed to be true is reflected in price itself. When I have time to read it's aviation related. Get a life you guys!
  • #5
  • Oct 20, 2007 8:16am Oct 20, 2007 8:16am
Quoting philmcgrew
I look at the charts. Everything that is true and believed to be true is reflected in price itself. When I have time to read it's aviation related. Get a life you guys!
While it is true that everything gets reflected in the charts, If one wants to find profitable inefficiencies and opportunities, we have to look to the fundamentals and sources outside of charts. By their very nature, they are not reflected in the charts, at least not yet.

These are the type of Data that can only be found outside of the technical view. I can think of two very good examples right now, but if I talked about them, that would violate a friend's trust and cause the data to be reflected in the charts, thus destroying the inefficiency, but eventually they will show up in the charts, when the potential has been rung out of them.

My source lately has been Thomson news. I also enjoy reading SFO, as it is a free publication and geared to currencies. I also am a sucker to buy just about every trading book out there and check out from the library most everything else. Reading is what I do.
  • #6
  • Oct 20, 2007 9:33am Oct 20, 2007 9:33am
This stuff IS my life!!

Seriously, I read as much current stuff as I can and I totally agree with the points about reading history and contrarian views.
  • #7
  • Oct 20, 2007 10:00am Oct 20, 2007 10:00am
Quoting philmcgrew
I look at the charts. Everything that is true and believed to be true is reflected in price itself. When I have time to read it's aviation related. Get a life you guys!


Phil - I meant fundamentals/feel for the current market sentiment. It helps sometimes to understand market reactions to economic releases..etc if you know what the current market sentiment about an issue is. Also, it paves the road for a little fundamental bias for your chart-reading. That said, I agree
Virtue finds and chooses the mean. Aristotle, Ethica Nichomachea
  • #8
  • Oct 20, 2007 10:05am Oct 20, 2007 10:05am
Quoting NewstraderFX
This stuff IS my life!!

Seriously, I read as much current stuff as I can and I totally agree with the points about reading history and contrarian views.
OK, but what are your sources? Analysts can and will say contradictory things, so while it is nice to see different views on how events can play out, the views of an economist from the Economist is probably more useful than Bob's dollar musings & others. I'm hoping to see what successful traders view as a good/trustworthy source of information.
Virtue finds and chooses the mean. Aristotle, Ethica Nichomachea
  • #9
  • Oct 20, 2007 10:12am Oct 20, 2007 10:12am
Quoting Plutonite


Phil - I meant fundamentals/feel for the current market sentiment. It helps sometimes to understand market reactions to economic releases..etc if you know what the current market sentiment about an issue is. Also, it paves the road for a little fundamental bias for your chart-reading. That said, I agree
I'm not poking a stick at you guys, I just don't see the connection between thinking you know why the market moves and trading a market that moves.

In John Murphy's book Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets he states that "The fundamentalist studies the cause of the market movement while the technician studies the effect."

I would bet that if you went an entire month without financial news your trading would not be adverseley affected and, if anything, might improve.

Maybe we should develop a 12 step program to assist in making the transisiton.
  • #10
  • Oct 20, 2007 10:26am Oct 20, 2007 10:26am
Quoting Plutonite
OK, but what are your sources? Analysts can and will say contradictory things, so while it is nice to see different views on how events can play out, the views of an economist from the Economist is probably more useful than Bob's dollar musings & others. I'm hoping to see what successful traders view as a good/trustworthy source of information.
I should admit that one of my secret vices is scrolling through the Yahoo finance columnists on an almost daily basis. Like the client positions on Oanda, it's a great contrarian indicator.

Other sites that have been helpful in the past are http://www.fintag.com, http://www.dealbreaker.com, and http://ftalphaville.ft.com/ ; one of FF's competitors (http://www.global-view.com) is extremely worthwhile, particularly the pro side. (not sure about the protocol of putting up competitors' sites; if it's a no-no I or a mod can remove the reference.)
  • #11
  • Oct 20, 2007 12:40pm Oct 20, 2007 12:40pm
Quoting Plutonite
I for one, have the Economist delivered weekly to my mailbox.
i have tried VERY hard to like the Economist, but those guys seem to be more concerned with politics than they are with economics. and if there is one thing i hate to read about, its politics:

btw, i posted a similar thread here: http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=46013

to quote my sources...

Quoting merlin
breaking news: TTN Audio
market insights: Bloomberg, Reuters, FF News
toilet news: Barrons
entertaining news: CNBC, FF News
Relax and be happy.
  • #12
  • Edited 3:38pm Oct 20, 2007 12:42pm | Edited 3:38pm
Quoting HalifaxCB
one of FF's competitors (http://www.global-view.com) is extremely worthwhile, particularly the pro side. (not sure about the protocol of putting up competitors' sites; if it's a no-no I or a mod can remove the reference.)
sorry man gotta ban you for this LOL (kidding of course)

i have heard a few people (whom i respect) say that this was a good site, but when i go to it i cant see what the big deal is. can you give me a direct link to this "pro side"?
Relax and be happy.
  • #13
  • Oct 20, 2007 1:00pm Oct 20, 2007 1:00pm
hey btw, would be cool to hear some feedback about the newly evolved news section at FF. we have made some great progress over the last 6 months and we plan on making it even better in the next 6.

being a great lover of the fundies, i have been the major driving force behind the news at FF. not that i did any of the work (LOL), but i am the one who has been badgering the team to develop and improve the news section. i was the one who pushed FF to have a news section in the first place!! nothing would make me more proud than to say that FF is my #1 news source. we are still a bit far from that, but i think we can get there eventually

so anyway, what do you guys think of FF News in its current state, and what do you think should be done to improve??
Relax and be happy.
  • #14
  • Oct 20, 2007 7:37pm Oct 20, 2007 7:37pm
Quoting merlin
sorry man gotta ban you for this LOL (kidding of course)

i have heard a few people (whom i respect) say that this was a good site, but when i go to it i cant see what the big deal is. can you give me a direct link to this "pro side"?
The GVI side is subscription only, but I think they offer a month or two free. It's funny, I've had a subscription there so long that I forgot how it works, it just comes up automatically with their Forex Forum on one side, and the GVI on the other - but if you go to the contact page:
http://www.global-view.com/contact_us.html
and just request some info I think they'll be glad to fill you in on details. I find that site and this one perfectly complementary - they balance each out quite well, and in most ways I don't think that the two of you are really in competition, as both tend to address similar issues quite differently.
  • #15
  • Oct 20, 2007 7:53pm Oct 20, 2007 7:53pm
Quoting merlin
hey btw, would be cool to hear some feedback about the newly evolved news section at FF. we have made some great progress over the last 6 months and we plan on making it even better in the next 6.

being a great lover of the fundies, i have been the major driving force behind the news at FF. not that i did any of the work (LOL), but i am the one who has been badgering the team to develop and improve the news section. i was the one who pushed FF to have a news section in the first place!! nothing would make me more proud than to say that FF is my #1 news source. we are still a bit far from that, but i think we can get there eventually

so anyway, what do you guys think of FF News in its current state, and what do you think should be done to improve??
It's great, especially in that most of the folks you've managed to corral into writing these articles seem to be actively involved in trading - which makes for a much more interesting environment than say something you might find on BB, wrtten by a business journalism grad...In turn that made the hardest hurdle for me to overcome, because your writers tend to write from pretty specific perspectives - probably dependent on their own trading styles. Which I think is good. BTW, I also like the calendar, particularly the links to the originating sites, and the fact that it is a very easy layout to scan down to get an impression of what's going on. The only improvement I would like is to see the calendar put on a different server or internet link (sorry if I don't know the correct technology); it's just that during data releases access to other parts of the forum get tied up, I imagine with people madly hitting 'refresh'....
  • #16
  • Oct 21, 2007 3:03pm Oct 21, 2007 3:03pm
Great responses here.
Phil: I'm sure you must read something every now and then other than forex factory discussions. Heck, you're the guy who points us to the most interesting articles - are you telling me you NEVER look at what bloomberg/WSJ/reuters... et al have to say?

Merlin: I never read barrons, and the Economist is indeed mostly political commentary, but the business sections can be a little different. Usually they concentrate on the important things few people have considered, and rather than rehash the same breaking-news stuff we see everywhere there is actually some insight on some of those columns. And yes, I despise the politics too

Soo - almost everyone uses the standard set of sources, then? What about beachbum, darkstar..there has to be more variety.
Virtue finds and chooses the mean. Aristotle, Ethica Nichomachea
  • #17
  • Oct 21, 2007 3:54pm Oct 21, 2007 3:54pm
Quoting Plutonite
Phil: I'm sure you must read something every now and then other than forex factory discussions. Heck, you're the guy who points us to the most interesting articles - are you telling me you NEVER look at what bloomberg/WSJ/reuters... et al have to say?
Plutonite, I'm not doing this to sound cool or anything like that but I honestly don't read any of that stuff. I do read Mauldin's free weekly newsletter and have read both of his books. I don't look at FF calendars or news (sorry Merlin and newstraderfx guy) and I have no regard for the opinons of others exept I appreciate that everyone has a different way of attempting to be right more than they are wrong. In my800+ posts here I have never once said what I think a single pair might do because I think it's dangerous to have a reason, other than probability, to beleive in a position. As Lao Tzu said: Those who have knowledge don't predict. Those who predict don't have knowledge.

Since I don't care about the opinions of others I have to assume they could care less about mine. I don't live in a cave so I do know when NFP and FOMC meetings occur but beyond that if I see a spike at 0830 I know news probably came out. If it goes my way I take the gift. If it goes against me money management will sort out the damage.

Reading the Wall Street Journal might make me more interesting at parties but I fail to see how it helps me make a decision on the right edge of a chart. Again, I respect the opinions of those who disagree.
  • #18
  • Oct 21, 2007 5:25pm Oct 21, 2007 5:25pm
Must say i'm pretty much on the same page as Phil.

I have no idea what news is coming out and when apart from the obvious nfp etc - in fact if i'm watching the charts and notice it's 1:25 then i'll say to my team "is there any news out in 5 mins" - only one member of my team knows the answer or cares.

The fact there is news around may alert me to the fact that i could have a position closing if one is close on stop but not for any other reason. I couldnt care less the substance of the news reports.

These news items don't affect the trends nearly as much as most think - mostly they are with trend and even when not they mostly revert back soon anyway.

as for others opinions, well bloomberg might have one guy saying long and another saying short and both giving a shedload of reasons for each way - in the end though what does it matter to you? does it tell you which way to trade, for how much and for how long?

For most people (and me) not, therefore i choose not to subject my decision making to others opinions when all it does is make me second guess what i have already committed to.

Of course I still have a view when it comes to the global perspective of the market - ie, the dollar is in trouble and if there were enough news items that began to shake this then i guess i'd know about it soon enough watching the prices

Of course your perspective is totally different if you are a fundie trader - then the news is your lifeline i guess.
https://linktr.ee/Soultrader
  • #19
  • Oct 21, 2007 5:34pm Oct 21, 2007 5:34pm
Quoting philmcgrew
I look at the charts. Everything that is true and believed to be true is reflected in price itself. When I have time to read it's aviation related. Get a life you guys!
Oh thank god someone other than me said it(got my head bitten off for doing it elsewhere, thx, no more)





(P.S. you caught me off guard by quoting Mr. Tao-Te-King Phil )
Trust price. Know yourself.
  • #20
  • Edited 7:32pm Oct 21, 2007 6:46pm | Edited 7:32pm
Cable update, The closest thing to a financial daily show

Warning, nothing posted there has been fact checked.
and its commentators are not real commentators.

No, really I try to listen to the news as little as possible, I am with phil in that the charts are the best source of news as they dont have an opinion or a position to defend just pure honest fact.
Just Trade It
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