A news-day checklist

It is the evening before the US jobs report. What time does it land where you are, and which of your orders will still be live when it does?

Know the time where you are

Date

UK (London)

Iran

Your device

Release times are set in the home city of each bank or agency. Pick a release and a date: the UK and Iran times move when clocks change, and in a few weeks a year the US and UK are out of step. Check every date on your own calendar.

Each release is set in its home city: US data at 08:30 New York time, the Fed at 14:00 New York, the ECB at 14:15 Frankfurt, the Bank of England at 12:00 London, UK CPI at 07:00 London. Your calendar converts these into whatever time zone it is set to, and your trading platform shows a third clock, its server time. Many platforms use UTC+2 in winter and UTC+3 in summer (typical; check yours). Set alarms in your own time, not the platform’s.

For US data, the UK time is 13:30 for most of the year. In Iran it is 17:00 while the UK is on winter time and 16:00 while it is on summer time, because Iran no longer changes its clocks. The awkward weeks are when the US and UK are out of step: the US changes on the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November, the UK on the last Sundays of March and October. In 2026 the UK goes back on 25 October and the US on 1 November, so US data from 26 to 30 October lands at 12:30 UK and 16:00 Iran.

Orders, positions and margin

Pending orders. A buy stop or sell stop a few pips from price is exactly what a spike fills, at the widest spread, often just before it reverses. A limit order can fill on a spike that keeps going. Before the release, remove pending orders near the price, or move them well outside the likely range.

Open positions. Use the choice from the previous lesson: close, reduce, or keep with the stop plus a slippage allowance inside your risk. Never remove a stop. If you widen one, cut the size so the dollar risk stays the same.

Margin. Your margin level is equity divided by used margin. A wider spread lowers the equity of every open position at once, and a spike against several positions in the same currency adds up. If the margin level falls to your broker’s stop-out level (often 50%, but check), positions are closed for you at the worst prices of the minute.

Example: preparing for the jobs report from Iran

It is a winter Friday. The report is at 08:30 New York = 13:30 UK = 17:00 Iran. Your platform, on UTC+2, will show 15:30. You set an alarm for 16:30 Iran.
Account $5,000. You have a pending buy stop at 1.0865, 15 pips above price, for a breakout. You delete it: a spike could fill it near the high with a 6-pip spread.
You are long 0.20 lots of EUR/USD from 1.0830, price is 1.0850 and your stop is at 1.0815. You close half, banking 20 pips × $1 = $20. On 0.10 lots ($1 a pip), the stop is 35 pips away; with a 20-pip slippage allowance the planned worst case is 55 × $1 = $55, about 1.1% of equity.
Margin on 0.10 lots at 1:30 leverage: 0.10 × 100,000 × 1.0850 ÷ 30 = $361.67. With equity of about $5,040, the margin level is 5,040 ÷ 361.67 = 1,394%, far above any stop-out level.
You write down when you will look again: 17:20 Iran, 20 minutes after the release.

Try it

My news-day checklist

0 of 8

I listed today's high-impact releases for the currencies in my pairs.
I wrote each time in my own time zone and in platform time, and checked for a clock change this week.
I know whether a rate decision has a press conference after it, and roughly when it ends.
I removed pending orders near the price, or moved them well outside the likely range.
For each open position I chose: close, reduce, or keep with the stop plus a slippage allowance inside my risk.
Every open position still has a stop.
My margin level stays comfortable if all my positions move 50 pips against me and the spread widens.
I wrote down when I will look again: at least 15 minutes after the release, or after the press conference.

Tick the items before your next release; they stay saved in this browser. Then run the gate below before any trade you take after the number.

Not checked yet

Answer the questions in order, from the top.

0 of 6 checked

1Has the release passed by at least 15 minutes?
2Is there no press conference or second release on these currencies in the next 30 minutes?
3Is the spread back within about 1.5 times its normal size?
4Has a post-release range formed, so my stop can go beyond it?
5Is the size recalculated from the wider stop, at no more than my normal risk?
6Is this a setup from my plan, not a chase of the spike?

Run this before any trade in the hour after a release. One 'No' means no trade yet.

Answer No to any question and the gate stops the trade, naming the reason, which is usually that it is still too early.

Quick check

Question 1 of 4
US CPI is at 08:30 New York. The UK is on winter time and the US clocks match. What time is it in Iran?
Question 2 of 4
The UK clocks have gone back but the US clocks have not yet. When does US data land in UK time?
Question 3 of 4
You have a buy stop 10 pips above price, placed for a breakout, and the jobs report is in 20 minutes. What is the sensible step?
Question 4 of 4
Why check your margin level when every position already has a stop?

Go deeper: How to read an economic calendar · Slippage in forex: what it is and how to limit it