Central Banks are institutions used by nations around the globe to assist in managing their country or region with the commercial banking industry, interest rates, and currency prices. Examples of active central banks include the following:

• the Federal Reserve of the United States,
  
• European Central Bank (ECB),
  
• Bank of England (BOE),
  
• Bank of Canada,
  
• the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).
  

The sphere of influence of a central bank may range from a single country such as the Reserve Bank of Australia or, represent policy created for a region or group of countries such as the ECB. Because of this, the actions of Central Banks have the ability to move markets and should be on every fundamental trader’s radar.

Monetary Policy

Normally, a Central Bank will use the monetary tools at their disposal to meet their designated goals. Monetary policy describes the actions taken by a central bank to control the money supply inside of its designated region. Depending on the state of the economy, the fed may select to either take an expansionary or contractionary policy, with the supply of money being influenced by two specific methods.

During times of crisis or economic slowdown, central banks will normally look to expand their monetary policy. They can do this by expanding asset purchases which increases the monetary base and by also decreasing interest rates. The theory behind monetary expansionary is to make money available to banks and businesses in an attempt to increase growth and development. As a byproduct of an expansionary policy, fundamental indicators such as GDP are expected to grow and unemployment decline.

Policy decisions and economic releases from Central Banks will occur sporadically throughout the month. The best way to track upcoming news is through the use of a good economic calendar. As these decisions are made, it is also important to track the movements of the market!

For traders

MT5 user interface

• If you can't view the calendar tab, probably it's a choice a your broker :

This tab may be missing if the economic calendar is disabled on a trade server.

• New Video : How to delete Calendar Events from charts ?
• New Video : How to disable Calendar Events from charts ?
• New Video : How to export Calendar Events ?
• New Video : How to show only selected Calendar Events on a chart ?
  
• Main documentation for using the tab, can be found here.

Analysis

• What is Fundamental Analysis and how use MT5 for that.
  
• What are the events and the available indicators in calendar tab?

For developers

• How to access calendar events from MQL5 ?
• A good demonstration about using calendar economic events from code.