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Economic Calendar: Reading CPI & NFP Prints

Quick Overview

An economic calendar lets traders track market-moving data such as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP)—two releases that routinely spark the highest intraday volatility in the forex market


CPI measures inflation by comparing the cost of a fixed basket of goods and services over time, while NFP counts U.S. employment excluding farm work and serves as a barometer of economic health.


Because this session merely explains where the data appears, what each field means and when it’s released, it qualifies as “factual information” under the FAIS Act—not financial advice fsca.co.za.

What You’ll Learn

  1. Economic-calendar colour codes — how yellow, orange and red flags on popular calendars signal expected impact levels forexfactory.com.

  2. CPI mechanics — weighting of housing, transport and food in both U.S. and South-African CPI baskets and typical release times (10:00 SAST for Stats SA)

  3. NFP snapshot — why the first Friday at 14:30 SAST moves USD pairs and how the headline job-creation number differs from the unemployment rate

  4. Using MT4’s built-in calendar — enabling the News tab, setting local time-zone offsets and filtering for “High-Impact” only (zero trade recommendations).

  5. Volatility prep checklist — spread-widening, margin requirements and FSCA risk-disclosure pointers to review before red-label releases

Why It Matters

Reading an economic calendar (forex) accurately lets traders anticipate liquidity gaps and align lot sizes with the FSCA’s margin-risk expectations, reducing surprise stop-outs around high-impact data.

Speaker

Brandon Lurie — professional trader, analyst and RE 5 candidate who specialises in platform optimisation and FSCA-safe education.

Extra Resources

Disclaimer: This webinar provides general, factual information and does not constitute financial advice as defined in the FAIS Act. Margin trading carries risk. Always consult a licensed FSP before acting on factual data presented.