In a nutshell, don’t go into key data with an open position unless you have friends at the ONS or other such places globally !
I’ve talked about this before in the chat room ( comments threads ) and said I rarely ever did, or still do, position prior to data without suitable protection as there’s always opportunity afterwards and none of us have a crystal ball. So in effect you’re gambling on a coin-flip.
This morning I sold GBPUSD at 1.5325 when I first sat down ( which won’t surprise any of you!) and, given the move to 1.5287 and my overall view I elected to run it through the data with a tight trailing stop-loss, locking in profit around 1.5300, on the basis that a marginally good number would give me another opportunity to re-sell.
I’m not wishing to sound clever after the event. I’m just highlighting the risks of trading data. There’s plenty of times when I’ve lost money too in the aftermath of figures coming out.
Up here ( 1.5430) I’m tempted to go short again but I’m not rushing in just yet.