How much value is in watching real-time news when you are trading the E-mini's? In the past I have always tried to stay away from the release of economic #'s by at least 10 minutes and otherwise have just reacted off what the charts are showing when news moves the markets. Is there a big advantage to having a live news feed in your opinion? TIA
economic data: I don't care about the actual numbers I just want to know if the numbers came out or not. I don't want to enter a trade on a setup a 10:03 am thinking the news is out and then it is delayed and what I saw was just knee jerk reaction before the real move. I don't look a the news though (don't even have a feed)... What's the cost of a news feed that gives you economic numbers in real time ( I mean real time I have heard many news feed are not really real time)? unexpected events: don't think a news feed help much, somebody always know more or is ahead . Often there is a setup that alerts you of an impending move.
Most econ numbers come out premarket, except for a few that come out at 10 et or 2 (nat gas inventory data, fed releases). My basic approach is to not have a position on ahead of market moving news. I do think it is helpful to have a news source so that you can relate a big move to some news item but CNBC is good enough for that. otherwise I don't think a news feed is very helpful for index trading.
As is so often the case knowing the news is coming out is as important as knowing whether the news is "good" or "bad". Value judgements are made by market participants so ultimately what might seem to be good news actually leads to a selloff and vice versa. There are some who have probably got this whole news thing figured out but for me just knowing news is coming out at a certain time and planning ahead for an increase in volatility and possible lack of liquidity is worthwhile. And just like Kicking said, when the unforseen news events come out there will always be someone with faster access to the news who can act upon it before everyone else. If the market all of the sudden starts ripping and we are there in our position wondering "why is the market moving" or "what is the news" then we are foolish. Best bet is to see what is happening and react to that. If it is ripping then get out of the loser quick. Who cares "why". The market doesn't hold a news conference to let the world know why it is going up or down and sometimes it does the opposite of what seems logical. It rolls on whether we know why it is rolling on or not. In these cases knowing the news just confirms what the market has already been doing and isn't that much value because by then most of the opportunity is already gone.
Youve got it backwards. Watch the futures to see when the news is breaking. They will lead the news anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes.
That's the point I was trying to make. If I know that news is coming out at 8:30 then I watch the countdown until 8:30. I pay particular attention to what is happening at or around that time to find out how smart money is reacting to it. Sometimes the reaction to the news is delayed and sometimes early. But ultimately what the market does is more important than knowing what the news is. The more important question than when the news is coming out is how the market reacts to the news whether in advance of, at the time of, or well after the news has been announced.
Thanks for the quick replys. I've been using a combination of CBS Marketwatch's Market Pulse / News and Briefing.com to confirm economic numbers and news. For those that do watch news to confirm that the #'s came out, what do you use for sources?
Timely post- Friday I got nailed thinking the Michigan Sentiment had already been announced, I went short, and 10 seconds later the numbers came out. I got filleted. Sometimes there's no accounting for one's own stupidity- mine this time!
FYI: I use ESIGNAL's news feed... during the last FED meeting, ESIGNAL had the news several minutes (yes minutes) before CNBC. Not sure if this was a fluke or not.