News Drivers: How to Read the Economic Calendar Before You Trade

Before you plan a single trade, know what the economic calendar is about to throw at the market… and where the landmines sit.

From the free MicrosTrader Trading Library… 140 lessons mined from 1,042 live ES and MES futures sessions taught since 2018.

News Drivers are the scheduled economic events that move the market. CPI, FOMC, non-farm payroll, Powell speaking, PMI, PCE. Reading them means scanning the economic calendar before the open, flagging the red and orange folder events, and marking their exact release times on your chart as no-trade zones. Do this first, before you plan a single ES E-mini futures entry. The calendar tells you how dangerous the day is going to be.

This page gathers everything George teaches about News Drivers across hundreds of hours of live ES and MES micro futures trading… where to find them, how to grade the day's danger with Level 10 Trading, when to Stand Down entirely, and how to trade the news candle when you choose to stay in the fight.

“"So the first thing let's do is let's look at the news drivers for today and next week."”

— George, live session, Nov 29, 2024

ES futures Battle Plan chart from George’s published record

From George’s published record: Micros Trade Plan #334 — a 60-point move, mapped in advance.

The Pre-Flight Checklist: Scan the Calendar First

Every session starts the same way. Open the economic calendar. George uses two free tools every morning, Forex Factory and Financial Juice, and this scan sits inside his Pre-Flight Checklist. The rule is simple. Find the week's yellow, orange, and red folder events before you touch a chart.

Not every folder carries the same weight. The yellow folders are mostly Fed speakers, and they love a microphone. George reads them for what they are… "a lot of FOMC guys talking, well they love to talk don't they" (Nov 29, 2024). Then he moves straight to the events that matter.

“"It's part of your pre-flight checklist which I have in the quick start guide… one of the things you need to be checking are the yellow, orange, and red events during the week."”

— George, live session, Nov 15, 2022

George has taught this in 25+ recorded sessions… and every claim in the full lesson links to the recording it came from. The full lesson covers far more than fits here.

Read the full lesson free at MicrosTrader.com →

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📍 Originally published on MicrosTrader.com

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