Get Ready For Endless Trade Opportunities With Non-Farm Payroll

Friday, October 2, 2015 at 8:30 AM ET Non-Farm Employment Change, sometimes called NFP or Non-Farm Payrolls is released.

When this report comes out the markets go crazy creating many trade opportunities! This report gives the change in the number of people employed during the previous month but excludes the farming industry, hence the title Non-Farm. It comes out every month, usually the first Friday of the month, reporting numbers for the previous month.

There are several strategies that can be traded for this news event. The profit potentials for each of the strategies are based on ranges the markets moved over the last 12 months of report releases.

Several Different Strategies To Trade

The first strategy is an Iron Condor strategy using Nadex spreads. You buy a lower spread below market but with the ceiling where the market is trading at the time. You also sell an upper spread above market but with the floor where the market is trading at the time.

The next strategy is a Straddle also using Nadex spreads. This setup is the opposite of the Iron Condor. With this setup, you buy an upper spread with the floor being where the market is trading at the time and you sell the lower spread with the ceiling being where the market is trading at the time.

For Straddle trades, note that these are the ranges expected. If you can pull off a straddle, taking profit for 1:1 from the market price up to the expected move with a 9, 10 or 3 PM ET expiration, that is acceptable and can be a better trade than the Iron Condor in many cases.

If you want to get real crazy, you can go for a Synthetic Straddle on the EUR/CAD and GBP/CAD. The market moves 100-150 pips on these pairs during NFP. To set this up you buy both the EUR/USD and the USD/CAD upper spreads. You also sell both the EUR/USD and the USD/CAD lower spreads, while watching the EUR/CAD chart for trade management. See related article: “Synthetic Spread Trading On Nadex: Placing A Straddle Trade.”

Usually most of the market movement or the biggest move happens in the first 15 minutes, or 8:30 AM ET - 8:45 AM ET. When entering your trade go for as much time as you can get, ideally with a 3 PM ET expiration or 9 AM and 10 AM expirations. You can enter anytime between 7 AM ET and 8:15 AM ET.

Often the market will remain flat after 11 AM to 3 PM ET after NFP and on Fridays, so this can be a great iron butterfly time as well to trade forex.

To learn more about how to trade news events and the best strategies to trade them see www.apexinvesting.com. Nadex can be traded from 49 different countries.