FFcal Indicator - New Version

The founder of exchange trading theory, Charles Dow, discovered the postulate about the influence of any news and events on market quotes. And if a series of political decisions, the actions of country leaders, or the outcomes of meetings and negotiations cannot be predicted, then the release of economic news always has a schedule known in advance and a quite predictable result.

So, the hero of today's review is the legendary FFcal news indicator in the very latest and most current version. Let us look at how its settings have changed, how to configure the indicator correctly, and how it can be used in work on the Forex market.

Platform: Metatrader 4
Currency pairs: any
Timeframe: any
Trading time: any
Indicator type: non-trading, auxiliary, news
Recommended brokers: Alpari, RoboForex, Amarkets

News event data are published in economic calendars, which are a table showing the release time, currency, name of the news, and its previous and actual value.

Many resources on the internet provide this kind of information, but the ForexFactory information portal is considered one of the best providers of news; the reasons for thinking so are set out in a separate article on our website.

FFcal is an indicator that transfers information from the economic calendar of this resource, well known among traders in Forex, directly onto the Metatrader 4 chart. The indicator is simple and elegant; the trader sees in the window the two nearest news items with a countdown timer and a mark of their importance.The developers did not clutter the field with a large number of indicators because every disciplined currency speculator begins the day by studying the calendar, noting the release time and importance of the event, and preparing in advance for a possible strong market reaction.

Every day, the important events of the coming trading day can be found on our website in the "Forex analytics" section. The "Fundamental analysis" section publishes every day the release time and a list of news worth paying attention to.The FFcal indicator removes the need to leave reminders after the morning market analysis and serves as a "fundamental alarm clock" intraday. It additionally alerts the trader to the imminent publication of some statistics.

After downloading FFcal, unpack the archive and install the mql4 file in the "Custom Indicators" section of the Metatrader 4 trading platform. The algorithm for installing the indicator is described in detail in an article on our website.

After restarting the terminal, select and drag the FFcal indicator onto the chart from the "Navigator" window (1), or attach it to any currency-pair chart window through the "Insert" menu, the "Indicators" option, choosing it from the list in the "Custom" section.The correctness of the installation will be indicated by the appearance of information about the two nearest news items; if this does not happen, check in the settings that permission to import dll libraries is present (1), and as a last resort, enter the ForexFactory website address in the name field (2).At the moment the indicator is attached to the chart, its settings window will open, the "Input Parameters" tab.

The results of economic news have a known force of influence on national-currency quotes, designated in the FFcal indicator as high or medium, meaning high or medium news importance. This helps forecast a spike in volatility with high accuracy, which allows intraday traders to:

A surge in volatility will "hit" stops, which are not set wide intraday, regardless of whether the news was in the direction of the open trade or against it; an important news item, as a rule, causes a spread of quotes in both directions.

If a trader is confident in the direction of the news impulse, and it coincides with the current trend, they may increase the size of the stop at the time the news is released, but this is an extremely undesirable option. The reaction to the news is always unpredictable and can reverse quotes even when data "favorable" to a particular currency are released, on the grounds that they had been "priced in beforehand" by traders in the medium-term trend.

That is why all news trading strategies are not connected with analysis at all, because they use two orders at once, one to buy and one to sell. The trader resolves only tactical questions:

Properly planned tactics for working on news can be a fairly profitable occupation because of the large number of factors known in advance, but it is persecuted by brokers with the methods described in this article on our website.

The FFcal indicator will not be superfluous for a trader in any terminal of any broker; refusing to watch the news is the same as doing without a clock or an alarm clock in everyday life. It can increase the profitability of any trading system if the trader takes news events into account and avoids excessive triggering of stops because of a volatility surge during the release of important news.

The tactic of "sitting on the fence" at the moment when important economic data is published will also help save time, nerves, and money. Consistent observation of the market reaction and indicator parameters will allow the trader to better understand the nature of fundamental analysis with the rises and falls of national economies, inflation, interest rates, and other objective factors that unequivocally knock out or lift national currencies. 

Other news indicators:

Respectfully, Pavel Vlasov Tlap.io