News and volatility: free trading lesson

Step 1

Volatility: how far and how fast

Volatility is how far and how fast a price moves. High volatility means long candles and long wicks: more chance for a big gain, and exactly the same chance for a fast loss. It is not good or bad. It is the size of the waves, and your stop and size have to be chosen for them.

QUIET

VOLATILE

Same market, same number of candles. On the quiet day the candles are tiny; on the wild day each one moves more than the whole quiet day.

Step 2

The economic calendar

The economic calendar lists the scheduled reports for every country, with the time and how much they usually move the market. For gold and the US dollar, the US reports matter most: jobs, inflation and interest rates. Big decisions by central banks and sudden headlines can move markets too, but the calendar covers the ones you can plan around.

EVENT	HOW OFTEN	IMPACT
US jobs report	Monthly	High
US inflation (CPI)	Monthly	High
US interest rate decision	About every 6 weeks	High
US retail sales	Monthly	Medium

A few of the events that move gold and the US dollar most. The calendar gives the exact date and time.

Step 3

What happens at the moment of news

Right before news, many traders step away, so the spread widens: the gap between buy and sell (lesson 2) can grow many times its normal size. Then the number comes out and price often jumps one way and snaps back the other, a whipsaw. Stops on both sides get hit before the real direction even shows.

The number comes out: in seconds, price shoots up.
In the same candle it falls even further, and closes below where it started. Buyers and sellers both got stopped out.

Step 4

Gaps can skip your stop

A stop loss is an order to close at the next available price once its level is reached. Usually that is very close to the stop. But when the market jumps, or reopens after the weekend at a different price, there is a gap and the stop fills wherever trading starts again. That difference is called slippage, and it is how a $10 plan can lose more.

Friday: you are in a buy at 4,110 with a stop at 4,100, sized for $10 of risk.
Monday: the market opens at about 4,086. There was never a price at 4,100, so the stop fills at the first price there is. The loss is about $24, not $10.

Step 5

A simple news rule

You do not need to predict the news. You only need to never be surprised by it. Four habits do that:

Every morning, check the calendar for high-impact events in the markets you trade.
No new trade from 30 minutes before to 30 minutes after a high-impact event.
Already in a trade? Decide before the news: keep it with its stop and accept that it can slip, or close it.
Weekends: gold and currency markets close on Friday night and can reopen at a different price. Crypto trades all weekend and can jump at any hour.

Step 6

The AI economic calendar

The economic calendar in AiTradely lists every release coming up and how much it can move the market. Open any event and the AI explains it in plain words: what a number above or below the forecast usually means, and for which markets. The green numbers on the screenshot match:

The event: the Fed rate decision, high impact, in six hours. Tap Notify for a reminder before it.
The AI's read: higher rates strengthen the dollar; gold usually falls when real rates rise.
Above or below: the arrows show which way the dollar, Bitcoin and gold tend to move on each outcome.

The same events are marked on the AiTradely chart, like US CPI, so afterwards you can see exactly which candles the news moved.

The AiTradely economic calendar: the Fed interest rate decision with the AI commentary open, and what a higher or lower number means for the dollar, Bitcoin and gold — The calendar in the app on 28 October 2026

Watch out. If you cannot accept a stop being skipped by a jump in price, do not hold a trade through high-impact news, and think twice before holding over the weekend.

News and volatility