Central bank decisions and trading automation.

The short answer

Rate decisions are the easiest macro risk to automate around, because they are scheduled months in advance: every major central bank publishes its meeting calendar. A scheduled event can be filtered. A shock cannot (that is the geopolitical events guide).

The working setup: turn on the news filter, confirm that each decision you care about is rated high impact for the currencies you trade, add a time-filter block for the decisions that matter most as a backup, and decide before the week starts what happens to positions you already hold. The US Federal Reserve has its own page: FOMC and trading automation.

The calendar: next decisions (verified 4 October 2026)

Dates copied from each central bank's official schedule on 4 October 2026. Central banks can add unscheduled meetings and occasionally move dates, so check the official page in the week of the event. Notice the clusters: in the last week of October the Bank of Canada and the Fed decide on 28 Oct, the ECB on 29 Oct and the Bank of Japan on 30 Oct; in December the RBA (8 Dec), Bank of Canada and Fed (9 Dec), SNB (10 Dec), ECB and Bank of England (17 Dec) and Bank of Japan (18 Dec) land within eleven days.

Why rate decisions move markets

The rate itself is often priced in before the meeting. What moves price is the surprise against expectations: an unexpected cut or hike, a split vote, a change in the wording of the statement, new projections, or a hint about the next meeting. That is why the reaction can come in two waves: first when the decision is published, then again during the press conference, when the governor answers questions live.

Around the release, liquidity thins out. Spreads on the affected pairs widen, price can jump through several levels in seconds, and the first move is sometimes reversed minutes later. The effect spreads beyond one pair: an ECB surprise moves EURUSD but also the euro crosses and European indices; the Bank of Japan moves the yen pairs and Japanese indices; the SNB mainly moves the Swiss franc.

What it does to an automated TradingView to MT5 strategy

• Entries into the spike. If your strategy's alert fires on the release candle, the market order fills at whatever price is available after the spread has widened, not at the price your chart showed.
• Stops slip. A stop-loss at the broker becomes a market order when it is touched. In a fast market it fills at the next available price, which can be well beyond your level.
• Indicators lag. A strategy tuned on quiet markets suddenly sees a candle several times its average range; volatility-based sizing and signals computed right after the event are distorted.
• Seconds matter. TradingView itself takes a few seconds to send a webhook; our part is about 0.5 s median from webhook to confirmed order (measured 19 to 23 September 2026). On a normal day nobody notices; during a decision, a few seconds is a different price.
• Prop firm rules. FTMO, for example, does not allow opening or closing trades, including Stop Loss and Take Profit executions, from 2 minutes before to 2 minutes after selected news on a Standard FTMO Account; its list includes rate decisions. Swing accounts and the evaluation phase are exempt (ftmo.com, checked 4 October 2026). Note that a filter can stop new entries, but it cannot stop a stop-loss from being hit inside that window.

How to automate around decisions with SignalForge

• Turn on the news filter (Trader plan and above). It reads the ForexFactory economic calendar and, by default, blocks new entries from 30 minutes before to 15 minutes after each high-impact event. A signal that arrives inside the window closes positions in the opposite direction instead of opening a new trade.
• Check the currency mapping. In Auto mode the filter takes the currencies from the chart symbol: a EURUSD chart watches EUR and USD events, so it reacts to the ECB and the Fed, but not to the SNB, which only touches CHF pairs. On indices (GER40, US500, JP225 and the like) Auto mode cannot detect currencies: set them by hand.
• Back it up with the time filter. Decision dates are known months ahead, so block the half-hour slots of the decisions that matter for your symbols. The time filter works with two windows or a map of 48 half-hour slots in your time zone, converted to broker time. It is your safety net because the news filter fails open: if the calendar does not respond, it does not block. Close signals are never blocked by the time filter.
• Cover the press conference if you need to. The default window ends 15 minutes after the decision; press conferences often run longer (the SNB's starts 30 minutes after its press release). Block the extra slots with the time filter.
• Decide about open positions in advance. The filter stops new entries; it is not a flatten-before-news button. If you want to be flat, send a close alert from your strategy or close by hand before the window. Positions you keep hold their stop-loss and take-profit at the broker.
• Keep the Prop Firm Shield on. Daily loss limit in $ or % (equity measured against the day's starting balance): at the limit the EA closes open positions and stops until 00:00 broker server time. It does not apply a maximum drawdown rule; track that yourself. Details in Prop Firm Shield.

Weekly checklist

• Sunday: list the week's decisions for every currency you trade, from the official pages above.
• Rating: confirm on the ForexFactory calendar that each one is marked high impact; if not, the news filter will not act on it.
• Mapping: news filter on, currencies right (set them by hand on index charts).
• Backup: time-filter block for the decisions that matter most, press conference included.
• Positions: hold with stop, reduce or close by alert; decide now, not in the minute before the number.
• Prop firm: check your firm's news rule and how it defines the trading day versus your broker's server time. Full list in the prop firm compliance checklist.
• After: open the dashboard; signals blocked by the filter appear as FILTERED with their reason, so you can confirm it acted.

Background on why TradingView alone cannot do this: TradingView news filter guide.

FAQ

Macro events cluster