at 20 to the hour i looked at the economic calendar and noted the ZEW would be released on the hour, 15 minutes later, calendar forgotten i decided to enter a euro short - usually i don't enter a trade on the hour changeover, it's like stepping on cracks price fell and as i watched, the profit in the ticket window suddenly reduced, the hampster woke up, squeeked, jumped and started pounding the treadmill - i remembered - the ZEW then saw Oanda's spread had gone to 10 pips ! ! ! gulp, gulp, gulp how long would the 10 pip spread last ? would the price rocket reverse and cause a loss ? should i close the trade now ? i could see the hamster glaring at me - 'decide, decide, make up your mind' he panted - i did, a profit after closing the trade at a spread of 4 pips i use the forexfactory calendar and discovered there are 'flash' releases: "Data is given to Thomson Reuters subscribers 2 minutes before the public release time listed on the calendar - early market reaction is usually a result of trades made by these subscribers." isn't that cheating ? http://www.forexfactory.com/index.php?tomorrow=1 didn't someone have a bootleg means of obtaining 'flash' info, tapped the line or something anyone got a link . . .