[umfan92]

Now, I don't like watching anything about finance and the markets on tv. I never watch any of the usual channels such as cnn, msnbc, cnbc or whatever else there is. But recently I watched a little bit of cnn and it wasn't bad. I've hear many people say that you can't trust any of that because they all have biased opinions. I don't really know much about that but what do you guys do?

[TheNegotiator]

There are various news squawks if you do a search on the net for them. I would say use one but know their limits. Make sure that you can 'see' that what they have said is being confirmed by reaction in the market you are trading. Note also that often market participants react to news prior to absolute confirmation and that when it turns out they are wrong, the market reverses hard the opposite way and squeezes them out. The real news source you need to trade news quickly if you are so inclined, is say a Reuters or Bloomberg terminal, which link in to their respective newswires- which most stories originate from. These are very expensive though (in the order of thousands of pounds a month).

[SIUYA]

i would suggest you look at your charts first - form an opinion and plan for the day, and only then look at the news - if there is something that really puts your plan into question (and I mean really puts your plan into question) then exercise some patience in the plan maybe eg; be a little more cautious in putting the short you wanted on - but often more than not the market will give you all the information you need - especially if you are trading short term - the market will react far far quicker than any news service unless you are watching a BBerg and reacting with those wire services.

[Tradewinds]

The market reacts almost instantly to news. The average person does not have time to react immediately. If you don't have time to react immediately, then getting news the very split second it comes out, really doesn't do you any good. If you get a news service, and they give you the numbers the second they come out, you need to know what they mean, and react within a couple of seconds. It's not possible.

You still need to know what the news is, but whether you get it the second it comes out, or 10 seconds after it comes out is immaterial. If you are paying huge amounts of money in order to get news the second it comes out, then you can't react fast enough, then it's all just pointless.

It's important to know when the major news releases are coming out, so that you don't get caught unexpectedly in a very volatile market. Watch what the initial reaction to the news is, then look at what the news actually was. Then decide what the bias is. For example, if the price spiked way up, then went way down to a new low, and the news was good, and the price had been falling on expectation of the news, that may have been the bottom. But it can get tricky.

I use Forex Factor for news releases.

Forex Factory