Now that you have seen the best free resources (in our opinion) it’s time to take a look at just one paid premium resource. And so that we don’t offend you we will also offer some more free additional resources that can help you take your trading with the fundamentals to the next level.
In this Article:
- Audio Squawks and News Feeds
- Audio Squawks and News Feeds History
- RANsquawk
- Financial Juice
- Additional Resources
- Reuters
- FX Street
- Investopedia
- Analysis Resource Wrap Up
Audio Squawks and News Feeds
One of the great benefits of modern technology is that there is always someone or companies pushing into new territories. Now, while audio squawks and news feeds are not something that is new to the Forex market they are an amazing technological breakthrough that could potentially help you with your Forex trading immensely.
There are many varieties of premium news feeds with costs from a few hundred to several thousand dollars per month. However, there is very little difference in this age of information. There are also a few free versions but with these you will notice a much lower quality of experience.
All institutional Forex traders in virtually every single firm, fund, or bank on the planet have access to real time news feeds and audio squawk. Bloomberg and Reuters are the two most well-known.
The news feed should inform you of everything that is relevant and what is currently driving the market sentiment at that precise moment. The goal of the news feed is to find out as quickly as possible what has been driving prices during the most recent trading session. It should also alert you in real time of anything that happens unexpectedly in the current session while you are at your desk trading.
The Forex market moves fast and there can be violent reactions to fresh news hitting the wires. The point of an audio squawk and news feed is to get you that information as fast as possible.
Audio Squawks and News Feeds History
How audio squawks and news feeds came into existence is an interesting story. There are hundreds of different news sources all with their own unique selling features and price tags. It’s not very practical for a trading firm to purchase every one of these trading tools for each trader they employ. This is because trying to follow all these news flows would turn into a full time job in itself and would not be efficient.
At the same time, traders need to know exactly what is happening in real time. They need to have access to the latest research and developments to execute their trades and make sure that existing positions are not at risk.
The solution to this inefficiency was to create an audio squawk desk within the financial institution. The audio squawk desk would employ a team of analysts whose sole purpose was to monitor all available news flows on dozens of monitors all day long.
These rooms would be connected to the main trading floor through a sound system so that when something major happened it could be squawked off to all the traders at the same time. This meant that the traders could focus on trading without missing out on anything important. The traders left the information gathering to the in house analysts.
Next came the development of news feeds to accompany the audio squawk. Everything that was previously squawked was also written out after the fact so that traders could catch up on anything they may have missed for whatever reason.
It became obvious that there was strong demand for this type of service was very strong from smaller trading companies that couldn’t afford to staff an in house team of analysts. Out of this was born an industry of audio squawk and news feed companies setting up and offering their services to the smaller financial institutions.
This made access to this type of market moving news and information possible to a much wider range of companies and even individual investors. And now even you and us can participate at this high level of information.
Now that you know the history and importance of audio squawks and news feeds let’s take a look at a couple.
RANsquawk
Ransquawk is a premium paid audio squawk and news feed service that is available to retail traders. You can check them out on their website and maybe take a free trial if you are interested.
This is a real-time news feed and audio squawk service that does all the heavy lifting for you. They do a rundown of all market moving news events beforehand and provide instant analysis from some of the best analysts in the business.
They do a session recap for all trading sessions that gets you up to speed on the things that moved the market while you were not at your desk. This is a slick way to get tuned into the important things in just a couple minutes.
They have a premium economic calendar that goes way beyond anything that Forex Factory does. There are also have a research suite that gets you prepared for the upcoming risk events a week ahead, central bank reports, option expiry calendar, and ad-hoc analysis of unscheduled events.
You can read our article that Two Blokes wrote that breaks down all the benefits for you (And a TBT discount!).
https://twoblokestrading.com/blog/ransquawk-review/
Financial Juice
If you don’t want to go the route of a paid service such as RANsquawk then you can check out Financial juice.
https://www.financialjuice.com/home
This has a free news feed and audio squawk but you sign up for a free account. This feed is delayed by a couple minutes but it is still better than not having anything at all. It gives you a chance to test out audio and news feeds without having to invest any money. Keep in mind that it is not anywhere near as good as a premium paid audio squawk and news feed but it is a good place to try something new when you are learning all this information.
Additional Resources
There are also a few other great websites if you want to dig go a little deeper in your personal research. You can also compare all the sites to see which ones you prefer more. There is no right answer as to which website you prefer. Our preference is Forex Live but maybe you like these other ones better.
Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/finance/currencies
This is not a very timely website but it has some good weekend reading articles. If you have missed a trading session or have not been at your trading desk for a while this site is good to get you caught up on major events that have been shaping the Forex market recently. This site is more similar to Bloomberg.
FX Street
https://www.fxstreet.com/
This has some decent analysts and articles dedicated to FX. If you want to keep it fundamentals and sentiment then you might want to stick with their news or analysis tabs. One thing to keep in mind with this site is that while it does offer fundamental and sentiment news it tends to lean on the more technical analysis side of trading. This is fine but it is something to be aware of.
Investopedia
http://www.investopedia.com/
This is a great place to get good definitions on terms that you may not understand. If we have thrown some information at you that maybe you did not fully grasp then Investopedia typically can fill in any gaps. This is not a news site but it’s definitely helpful to have a go to place to fill in any holes you may have with terminology or definitions.
Analysis Resource Wrap Up
These free resources should not be underestimated just because they are free. Even when you are introduced to premium news feeds and research they should still be part of your regular routine because they offer a lot of value.
There are of course some extremely valuable paid services such as RANsquawk that will enhance your trading but in the beginning having information the fastest is not going to make you a better fundamental and sentiment trader. Rather, focussing on understanding and interpreting the information is more of the concern. Once you are proficient with your understanding of the Forex fundamentals and sentiment then it will be time to start looking at the more premium tools and information sources.
Up Next
Good job! That’s it for the Fundamentals section. Up next we are going to dive into economic cycles and understand what makes them tick so that you can apply your new fundamental knowledge more practically.