News trading is the attempt to profit from the sharp moves that follow high-impact economic releases. When a number lands well away from what the market expected — a hot inflation print, a shock jobs figure — price can travel a long way in seconds. The appeal is obvious: a known event, at a known time, with a known potential for a big move. The reality is messier, because the same volatility that creates the opportunity also breaks the tools you rely on to trade it safely.
What it is
News trading means positioning around scheduled, market-moving data. The heavyweight releases are the ones flagged "high impact" on any economic calendar:
- Non-farm payrolls — the monthly US jobs report (see what is NFP), routinely the most violent scheduled event of the month.
- Inflation — CPI and its cousins (see what is CPI).
- Central bank rate decisions and statements.
Some traders take a position before the release and hope for the right direction. Others wait for the number, let the first spasm pass, and trade the follow-through. Both are chasing a burst of movement in a compressed window.
What actually happens at the release
For a second or two around the print, the normal rules stop applying:
- Spreads widen. A pair that trades at a 0.8-pip spread can gap to 6, 10 or 20 pips as liquidity vanishes. You pay that spread to get in and again to get out.
- Slippage. Your order fills at the next available price, not the one you clicked. In a fast market that can be many pips away.
- Gaps. Price can jump straight over your stop loss, closing it far worse than the level you set.
- Requotes. On some brokers the order is simply rejected and re-offered at a new price (see what is a requote).
The risk you set is not the risk you get. A 20-pip stop assumes price passes through 20 pips in order. Around a release it can gap straight past, closing you at 35 or 40. Size the position on the fill you might actually receive, not the one on the screen.
A worked example
You plan to buy EUR/USD the instant a strong NFP lands. The spread is normally under a pip; at 13:30 it blows out to 6. You click expecting 1.0900 and fill at 1.0908 — eight pips of slippage on top of a wide spread, gone before the trade has done anything. At roughly £8 per pip that is about £64 of cost on entry alone. You set a 20-pip stop, worth £160, but the number disappoints, price gaps down, and your stop closes at 34 pips: a £272 loss, not the £160 you planned. Same trade, same stop — nearly 70% more risk than intended.
EA news filters
This is why serious EAs ship with a news filter — logic that pauses trading for a set window either side of a flagged release (see what is a news filter). The EA reads a calendar and stops opening trades, and sometimes protects or closes open ones, while the spread is chaotic, then resumes once conditions settle. It gives up any move it might have caught in exchange for avoiding the fills that wreck accounts. For most automated strategies that is the right trade, because an EA cannot read a chaotic tick the way a human sometimes can.
The Karnek note
Around news, the gap between the trade you intended and the trade you got is where accounts quietly bleed. Karnek reads your live terminal and shows the real fills, the slippage and the drawdown as they land, so a news-time surprise cannot hide behind an average. It is read-only — it monitors the account and can never place a trade.
Written and reviewed by the Karnek Research team. Last updated August 2026.
Educational content only - not financial advice. Past performance does not predict future results. Trading carries significant risk.