Trading on the news like a pro with MetaTrader tools
We often see how novice traders struggle to find any decent sources of information. Of course, the first thing we always recommend you to do is to check out FBS news and analytical materials. At the same time, if you have registered your account and successfully downloaded Metatrader, you already halfway to productive results. Today, you will learn how to see and to use the hidden tools of MetaTrader. This guide is especially useful if you like to trade on the news.
Unveiling the tool pack
Once you’ve logged into your real account in MetaTrader, you normally turn your attention either to the chart or to the “Market Watch” section of the software on the left. If you deposit a sum of money, you will probably look at the bottom of your screen, where you can see balance, equity, and margin. Let’s have a closer look at this window. It’s called “Toolbox”. Its features are the main subject of this article.
Firstly, let’s click on the News tab. This section tracks important headlines and assets.
The second instrument we are going to consider is an economic calendar, which you can find in (surprise, surprise!) the “calendar” tab.
You can set what you want to see on the calendar. It allows you to choose a priority of the event, add or delete events of particular countries and follow releases for only one currency. You can even implement events to the chart! To do that, press the right button on the calendar and choose “Show on charts” – “Add all events”. You can press “Auto update” if you want relevant data to be shown in the charts.
Strategy for trading on the news with MT toolbox
Let’s consider a real-life scenario for trading on the news using the MT tools. In the calendar's settings, we will choose events with medium and high priority.
Firstly, we open the calendar and see the first important event there.
On Wednesday, March 10, the first important event was the release of the Chinese CPI. According to the forecasts, the indicator was expected to advance by 0.9%.
We chose USD/CNH for scalping on the M5 timeframe. Before the release, we set 2-3 support and resistance levels closest to the price for faster placement of take profit and stop loss.
The calendar is updated immediately, which is very convenient if you are a scalper. As the data was posted, we saw that the actual figures came out lower than the forecast. The indicator increased by 0.6%. We opened a buy on USD/CNH as soon as we saw it, setting our take profit at the resistance of 6.5230 and stop loss several pips below the support at 6.5150. It was a success!
By the way, don’t forget that you can follow all the news in the “News” tab! The important alerts about a particular instrument will help you not to get lost in the complicated market environment and choose a pair that is moving right now (not only EUR/USD or GBP/USD!).
Bottom line
As you can see, MT has almost everything you need to trade on the news. If you want to get complete coverage of the markets, you can always visit the FBS website for trade ideas and a professional outlook.