Locate the source and time
A calendar lists scheduled releases. BLS and BEA provide official schedules for their US indicators. Check the indicator name, agency, date and original time zone before converting the time. Schedules can change; record when you verified one.
Do not rely on a fixed Madrid–New York time difference throughout the year. Keep the date and complete time zones in your notes. Historical practice requires the time applicable on the scenario’s date.
Understand the figure being compared
Check the reference period, unit, frequency and adjustments. A monthly change is not interchangeable with an annual change; a rate is different from a level. When a calendar abbreviates a name, consult the release for the exact measure.
Separate prior, released and consensus figures when consensus has an identified source. A previous figure may be revised. Do not attribute consensus to the official agency when expectations come from an external survey, and do not invent a missing expectation.
Observe without treating a release as a signal
Synthetic example: a fictional indicator rises from 2.0 to 2.2 in its stated unit. The difference describes the data; it does not determine an instrument’s direction. Reactions may depend on expectations, revisions and context you do not possess.
During practice, preserve the information available before the release. Afterwards, record the publication and price observations separately. Do not treat a figure revised months later as information a participant knew at the original moment.
An educational task
Choose an event from the exercise’s authorised archive and complete a sheet without trading: source, time, unit, period and status. Then explain two remaining questions. Learning to read the release is a complete task even without a price hypothesis.
- Official source and verification time.
- Original time and date-specific conversion.
- Unit, period and data revision.
- Information that was not yet available.
Sources and references
Chezur examples and explanations are educational. Consult the original source to verify conditions, data and updates.
Context and review of this explanation
How do I check the source, time and status of a calendar event?
- Topics
- Economic data · Session context
- Level
- Beginner
- Skills
- Prepare time-specific context · Read an economic release · Check provenance and version
- Examples
- See the scope described in the text and its sources.
- Specialist review
- Not documented for this edition. Automated structure and internal-link checks do not establish specialist review.