News Sentinel

High-impact news is where spreads blow out, stops get hit on spikes, and orders fill nowhere near where you expected. News Sentinel puts a live countdown and a shaded volatility window right on your chart — and tells you how many pips each release has actually moved the currency to give you an idea of potential volatility expected.

A free on-chart news panel for anyone who trades a chart — whether you run EAs that get stopped on news spikes, or you trade by hand and need to know when the market is about to lurch. News Sentinel shows you exactly when the next release hits, how violent it usually is, and whether to stand aside or trade it.

⚙ ONE-TIME SETUP (required — takes 30 seconds):

News Sentinel reads the live Forex Factory calendar, so MetaTrader needs permission to reach it once:

In MetaTrader 5: Tools → Options → Expert Advisors

Tick "Allow WebRequest for listed URL"

Add this URL exactly:  https://nfs.faireconomy.media

Click OK, and keep AutoTrading switched on (green)

That's it. The panel will show "Loading Forex Factory…" for a few seconds, then fill in. If it still says the feed is unavailable, double-check the URL above is in the list and AutoTrading is on.

WHAT IT DOES

— Live countdown to the next release, shown as a draining hourglass — and the panel header names its real impact: NEXT LOW / MEDIUM / HIGH-IMPACT, colour-coded so you know at a glance how much it matters

— A countdown on every upcoming event — each pinned chart tag carries its own live timer (e.g. "in 1:18:46", "in 2d 5h"), so you can see how long until every release, not just the next one

— Volatility window shaded on your chart around high-impact releases — the minutes where spreads and slippage blow out and fills go wild

— Pinned news tags on the chart that never clip when you zoom, colour-coded by impact (red high / amber medium / green low) and neatly stacked when several land at once

— Expected move — for each release it measures how far the currency pair that release actually moves travelled in the first minutes of past releases

— Forecast, previous and actual values (actual prints the moment it lands)

— Live spread readout and a volatility status: CALM / HIGH-IMPACT NEWS INCOMING / HIGH VOLATILITY NOW — dodge it or trade it, your call

— Session clock: Sydney / Tokyo / London / New York, with the next open

— Every event shown in your local, broker and GMT time (it auto-detects your broker's offset)

— Alerts before each release: popup, sound, phone push, email

WHY IT MATTERS — EAs AND MANUAL TRADERS

— Running EAs? See the exact windows where your robot is most likely to get spiked, slipped, or stopped — and pair it with the rest of the toolkit to measure or block it.

— Trading by hand? Never get caught holding a position into a release you forgot about. Know the move size and the countdown in advance so you can tighten up, step aside, or take the trade with your eyes open.

FULLY ADJUSTABLE

Panel size and position, which currencies to watch, impact level (high / high+medium / all), volatility-window length, how far ahead to alert, your timezone for display, and more.

NOTE

It's a read-only panel — it never places a trade. Attach it to one chart and enable AutoTrading so it can run (and, for the Forex Factory feed, reach the internet). 

Part of the SafireFX toolkit — the honesty layer for algo trading:

EA Slipstream — see what news and slippage actually cost your EA

PropGuard — automatically stop your EA trading through news and protects your account from all prop firm rules to avoid breaches

EA Overfitter, EA Auditor and AlgoRadar — vet, verify and monitor EAs

See all my tools on my seller profile.