[FREE] fx:macro Lite / 03.12.23

Homework, part two

Hi there! It's already Sunday, so it's time for another edition of fx:macro Lite! Great to have you here!

This week's image shows a cesspool with a gold nugget in it. Which has a lot to do with the last bit of homework I do every day. Read more about that below…

Let's get started…

In case you missed the usual deep-dive yesterday, you can still sign up for that here and get access to the premium content:

💎 Central Bank Speaker Recap for this week

Speaking of homework… here's this week's central bank speaker recap:

fxm 2023 W49 02Dec 4 CB Speaker Recap

114KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

💡 Daily reading habits

Macro is an information game with new puzzle pieces coming in constantly. Two weeks ago, I showed how I use the PMIs to keep up with major trends around different economies. But these are just monthly data points, which means it's a drop in the bucket compared to what's happening day in and day out. So, how do we keep up with all that information?

The answer is always the same: routines and being organized. I'm going through a morning and an evening routine:

It's all built around bookmarks in my browser, which is simple and effective. Let's start with the morning:

1. I check out the ForexLive Session Wrap for the Asia session: I'll read all the headlines and open a handful of the links that seem important. It's hard to get a more concise overview of what happened overnight.

   

2. The second bookmark goes straight to

   Harkster
   's website. I have set up a channel that searches for “Wraps”, and that gives me the Newsquawk Europe Market Open in the morning, and the US Market Open around noon (plus a lot of other useful things). I'll skim the Europe report, especially the treasuries, crude oil and geopolitics sections.

   

3. Finally, I read The Morning Hark as the third wrap/recap. (You might be wondering: why three wraps? Easy: they're all different in content and style, emphasize different aspects and complement each other well.)

4. No market routine would be complete without a look at the calendar: my favourite one is the ForexFactory one but I'll cross-check with investing.com because some numbers are reported a bit differently (Aussie labour market data, for example).

5. Next up are a bunch of charts: major indexes and assets, vixcentral.com, CME's FedWatch, FX Options Expirations, Commodity Performance, and a few more. As always, it's key to keep it consistent: same charts every day.

That's it, takes me about 30 minutes or so, and I feel like I know what's happening.

The evening routine looks similar:

1. I check the calendars again to see what data came in throughout the day.

2. I read the ForexLive Session Wraps for the Europe and US sessions.

3. One of my favourite reads:

   Harkster
   's Read on the Trading Floor. It's a great way to keep up with the main stories the market is talking (or writing) about. Plus, there's a curated set of links for a deeper dive. If I had all the time in the world, I'd just read everything in there.

4. Now comes the hard part: getting the Newsquawk US Session Wrap. It's available for free on Zerohedge. To get to it, we have to dig through the cesspool of rightwing disinformation, Russian propaganda and “news” about “Hunter Biden's Laptop” or transsexual beer before we find it. But it's definitely worth it because it offers the best and broadest view of all asset classes:

   

All in all, this is maybe another half hour, so it's about one hour per day in total. I'm also taking notes throughout the day/week to retain information a bit more actively than by just reading it, which adds a bit of time but it's worth it in my opinion.

That's it for this week, let me know what you think!

Until next weekend

FXMG