News cannot be ignored when trading. Even traders who are skeptical about the fundamental analysis are forced to pay attention to the release of the important statistics. FX News Alert is a program that allows to simplify the search and classification of important data from the world of finance.

Depending on the trading system, the trader’s behavior during the publication of news varies. Some prefer not to trade on a day when a large amount of vital statistics is planned, the others never stop trading but try to quickly move SL to breakeven.

You may want to try to catch a strong movement at the exit of the flat, for which the pending orders are set outside of the horizontal channel in different directions. But regardless of the role played by the foundation in the trading system, the trader has to keep track of the news publication.

Actually, the economic calendar can be found on the site of any DC, and there is no delay in the publication of statistics. For added convenience, the trader has all the news sorted in order of importance, and therefore the degree of influence on the market.

Getting Started with FX News Alert

In contrast to the usual online calendar, FX News is a full program, which requires installation before running. After the first start of the program, you should at first adjust the time, it must match the time zone you live in.

After running the program and selecting the desired time zone, the trader will see a list of major events that may affect trading. The «Next Event Countdown» window will display the time in minutes before the publication of the news. Regarding the impact of the news, the currency is specified which is included in the pairs that will be most susceptible to sharp fluctuations.

You may want to classify news by importance, painting them in colors ranging from white to red. To do this, click on “Impact”. Depending on the level of influence, the upcoming events will be painted in these colors:

• white – important news that do not directly affect trading though, such as religious holidays;
• yellow – the impact of news on trading is close to zero;
• orange – such statistics should be considered, the impact on the market is above average;
• red – the news of the first magnitude, a surge in volatility is often seen on the market after the publication of such data.

The name of the program does not include the word Alert without the reason: the program can work as a kind of alarm clock, notifying the trader with a sound a couple of minutes before the publication of news (the alarm time is indicated in minutes). You can also remove "unnecessary news" in the settings that relate to the currencies the trader does not trade.

Evolution of FX News Alert

Initially, this program had minimal functionality – just a simple show of news and nothing else. By the way, probably the best economic calendar forexfactory.com serves as the database. At the same time, developers allow the trader to specify the required sources of information: to do so, click on ForexNewsSites and just add the site you want.

But version 3.1 of the program is very different from the base version: in addition to the basic functions (news show), there are also good opportunities for analysts. The innovations include:

• redesigned user interface (GUI), the individual elements can be moved safely within the operating window;
• display of support/resistance levels. The program is now able to display the price chart and build support/resistance lines on it, and the analysis is performed on multiple timeframes;
• discovering the best "troublemakers". Separate block of FX News Alert analyzes the upcoming statistics for the whole week at once and displays the most important news in a separate window;
• screenshots – a separate button allows you to take screenshots;
• profile manager – you can create and store individual profiles for various instruments (metals, oil, currencies).

Comparison of the possibilities of the programs and online rivals

Any DC website has a calendar of major macroeconomic events, it even has the unpretentious settings. In particular, you can specify your time zone and filter the news in order of importance, which means that "the most important" news like St. Stephen's Day will not be displayed.

At the initial stage, the possibilities of the program were not very different from those calendars. The main difference was in the possibility of sound warning and that FX News Alert can be converted into a compact widget.

But recent changes made to FXNA raise functionality of the program to its highest pitch. As for the display of important data, this part saw no specific changes, the bulk of the improvement came in the analytical component.

Whether the use of FXNA is justified

This program is freely available, so it can be tried by anyone. As for the justification of its use, it must be understood that special attention should be paid to the news only in intraday trading, and much depends on the timeframe.

If the trading style is calm, transactions are made for 1-2 currency pairs, for example, on h4, it is quite possible to use a standard calendar on DC websites. One needs only to select the main events for themselves and move the stops before the publication of news. But FX News Alert can help in intensive trading.

Do not forget about good opportunities for analysis: by and large, FXNA functionality is already close to the trading terminal, with the only difference being that it is impossible to conclude transactions in it. In the rest, you may and should use FXNA, it will definitely be no harm, and no important news will be left unattended by the trader.