Hi there. This is just about FA, but let me give you an example with TA to explain what I'm asking about.
With TA you have your chart. You draw your indicators, your S&R, trend lines, you write some notes on the chart, etc. Your framework is the chart. All what you need in terms of information to be kept is there. You could also have another tool to take important notes about your forecast or what you see is happening. It could be EverNote or OneNote. But that is all what you need in order to be organized and keep your data preserved. How do you work to be organized with Fundamental Analysis?
I'm an average 95% trader, but I mean to improve combining TA and FA. One of the key points is to be organized and methodical. So I'm going to share what I do and I hope you can share yours or help me to polish my FA framework. This is oriented to Swing Trading or medium term trading as I can keep my positions from days to weeks. All the resources are free. I believe the Internet is full of free resources therefore it's not needed to pay for anything, at least at the level we do forex. If you contribute with your free own ones you are most welcome, but the ones that you truly use. We as humans have limited time and limited energies.
Fundamental Indicators to follow
As I said, this is swing trading, so I don't pay attention to low profile reports. Also it's a way to simplify things. Honestly I can't keep track of all the stuff released. My brain can't process it. I don't want over complication.
With TA you have your chart. You draw your indicators, your S&R, trend lines, you write some notes on the chart, etc. Your framework is the chart. All what you need in terms of information to be kept is there. You could also have another tool to take important notes about your forecast or what you see is happening. It could be EverNote or OneNote. But that is all what you need in order to be organized and keep your data preserved. How do you work to be organized with Fundamental Analysis?
I'm an average 95% trader, but I mean to improve combining TA and FA. One of the key points is to be organized and methodical. So I'm going to share what I do and I hope you can share yours or help me to polish my FA framework. This is oriented to Swing Trading or medium term trading as I can keep my positions from days to weeks. All the resources are free. I believe the Internet is full of free resources therefore it's not needed to pay for anything, at least at the level we do forex. If you contribute with your free own ones you are most welcome, but the ones that you truly use. We as humans have limited time and limited energies.
Fundamental Indicators to follow
As I said, this is swing trading, so I don't pay attention to low profile reports. Also it's a way to simplify things. Honestly I can't keep track of all the stuff released. My brain can't process it. I don't want over complication.
- GDP
- Employment
- Trade Balance
- Inflation. It's a lagging indicator but it's a result of other processes (i.e. if unemployment goes down inflation probably will rise), and it has an impact on Interest Rates decisions.
- Interest Rates, which is the reaction to the ones above. This is truly a market mover.
Sources of Information
I'm not following many. I used to read ZeroHedge and Martin Armstrong but everyday I had the feeling that the world was ending. I want facts, not conspiranoia, but I have to say that sometimes they also have facts. The sites I use regularly are:
- The Automatic Earth. This is a news aggregator. It points to many sites (including ZH)
- Bank for International Settlements. This site has the Central Bank Hub that contains links to all the CB sites and speeches. It's a good source. Speeches sometimes are uploaded with one day lag. I think speeches are interesting to get the feeling of what a CB is expecting.
- Forex Calendar. I don't want to do spam here, I guess anyone has their preferred tool.
- Piponomics blog from BabyPips. I think they do a great job explaining the mechanics of fundamentals, what is happening and presenting summaries with their Economy Snapshots.
- tradingeconomics.com. This is a database that provides charts for many reports/data from many countries.
Keeping Notes
This one is very important. How would you remember all the reports, data, incoming releases, etc? At the moment I haven't found the perfect setup as I'm in doubt with some tools. This are the tools I use at the moment:
- For notes I haven't made my mind between EverNote and OneNote. I think EN is cleaner and easier to use, but I had the hope I could combine ON with the capability that Microsoft Edge has to take quick notes from web pages. I have't been able yet to store my Edge quick notes in ON which is a pity. I used to have the habit of make a summary of the news I consider important but none of the note tools I mentioned can do it as I'd like to be. I would like to have like a news links database where I record a title and the link to the news so that I can filter news by country or date range. Maybe give an impact score to the news. I haven't found this kind of tool yet, so I survive with what I have.
- LinoIt. This is a great tool. It is a virtual whiteboard (as many as you want) where you can post post-its in different colors, sizes etc.
So folks, this is how I try to organize myself. It's not the perfect framework. It's far from being mature, but it evolves. I hope you can share yours and maybe I can get nice ideas to improve mine! 
