How to Plan Trades with an Economic Calendar
Organize macro releases by country, importance and local time to prepare for event-driven market volatility.
The concept in plain English
CATCO's economic calendar is a personal planner for events you enter, such as inflation releases and central-bank decisions. It stores your schedule locally with country and importance filters. It does not supply live release data, forecasts or automatic date updates.
Open Economic CalendarKeep source time and local time separate
A release calendar is useful only when its timestamps are reliable. Start at the statistical agency or central bank, note the published time zone and convert for the exact date. Do not reuse a fixed offset across a daylight-saving change. CATCO stores the events you enter in this browser; it does not provide consensus forecasts, actual results or automatic rescheduling. Recheck important events after an agency announces a schedule change.
Convert an example release time
A hypothetical event scheduled for 08:30 New York time on a summer date when New York is UTC−4.
08:30 + 4 hours = 12:30 UTC. Enter the equivalent time in the calendar's local time zone.
A 12:30 UTC event can be added to the personal planner with its country and importance.
This is not a scheduled real release. Verify the date and time at the publishing agency; the planner does not fetch them.
Calculation method
The planner stores user-entered events locally, converts their timestamps to the browser time zone and sorts upcoming releases by time with country and importance filters.
| Input | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Event time | Schedules the local release and countdown. |
| Country | Links the release to affected currencies and markets. |
| Importance | Supports high, medium and low impact filtering. |
| Event name | Identifies the statistic or policy decision. |
Step-by-step workflow
- Add confirmed release times from an official statistical or central-bank source.
- Assign country and importance based on the markets you follow.
- Review the filtered schedule before the session and confirm last-minute changes.
Practical benefits
- Creates a focused personal event schedule.
- Keeps planning data private in local storage.
- Reduces surprises around known volatility windows.
Questions about Economic Calendar
Which economic events usually matter most?
Central-bank decisions, inflation, labor data and major growth releases often receive attention, but sensitivity depends on current market expectations.
Does CATCO provide official release data?
No. Add and confirm events using the relevant official agency. The tool organizes your schedule and countdowns locally.
Where are my calendar entries stored?
Entries are saved in the current browser local storage and are not uploaded to a CATCO account.
Sources and further reading
Examples are hypothetical and exclude costs unless stated. This is educational material, not individualized investment or tax advice. Read our methodology and risk disclosure.