Key takeaways
- The Finviz economic calendar is free to view, lists US macro releases in ET with consensus, prior, and actual figures, and requires no login.
- China and other non-US coverage on Finviz is thin, so overnight traders should pair it with TradingView or IG for fuller Asia-Pacific calendars.
- A workable pre-market routine is opening the calendar at 6:30 ET, narrowing to the 8:30 and 10:00 ET slots, and marking each release as a vertical line on your chart by 9:00 ET.
- Tier 1 events for index futures are FOMC, NFP, and CPI; claims, PMIs, and EIA inventories are Tier 2 scalp windows.
- Finviz's calendar is pull, not push: it has no alerts, so pair it with a real-time alert tool for sub-minute catalyst awareness.
The Finviz economic calendar gives you a free, single-page view of the day's scheduled catalysts, CPI, FOMC, NFP, crude inventories, so you can time NQ and ES entries around the releases that actually move price. This walkthrough covers the pre-market routine, filtering setups, and how it stacks up against TradingView and IG.
What Is the Finviz Economic Calendar and What Data Does It Show?
Finviz's economic calendar lists upcoming macro releases: CPI, NFP, FOMC, PPI, jobless claims, and similar scheduled catalysts. You'll find it under the "Economic Calendar" tab on finviz.com, no login required to view it.
Release times
Each event is timestamped in ET, which matters if you're positioning NQ or ES ahead of an 8:30 AM print. Events are listed chronologically for the current and upcoming trading days.
Impact ratings, actual vs forecast vs prior
Every row shows the consensus forecast, the prior reading, and the actual number once it prints, so you can judge surprise magnitude at a glance. Events carry an impact rating that flags which releases are worth sitting in front of. For how a surprise propagates into futures pricing, see our coverage of inflation and macro releases.
Free tier vs Elite: what the calendar costs
The calendar itself is free to view. Finviz Elite adds real-time data and advanced charting for a subscription fee; current pricing is listed on Finviz's official site.
How Does Finviz's China Economic Calendar Coverage Compare to US Event Coverage?
Finviz does list China releases, but its China coverage is thinner than its US coverage. You get the headline events, like PMI and trade balance prints, without the depth of forecasts, historical revisions, and sub-indices you'd want before trading them.
Why China data matters for CL, GC, and overnight NQ sessions
China's Manufacturing and Non-Manufacturing PMIs hit around 8:30–9:00 PM ET, right in the overnight session. Weak prints historically push crude down on demand fears and gold up on stimulus expectations, and they set the tone for NQ before the US open. If you trade the overnight, a thin calendar entry means you find out about the print from price action instead of from your preparation.
Where to get a dedicated China economic calendar when Finviz is thin
TradingView and IG both carry fuller Asia-Pacific calendars with consensus forecasts, and Bloomberg's app covers it if you have access. Pair whichever you use with alerts that fire on the release itself, not on a creator's take an hour later. The same rule applies to US catalysts: our earnings calendar exists because a calendar entry is the setup, and a sub-minute alert is the trigger.
How Do You Build a Pre-Market Routine Around the Finviz Economic Calendar?
6:30–9:30 ET checklist for futures traders
Open the Finviz economic calendar at 6:30 ET, before the European session hands off momentum to US hours. Scan the full day first, then narrow to the 8:30 and 10:00 ET slots, since those are the releases that move NQ, ES, CL, and GC on the open. Note the prior reading and consensus for each event so you can judge the surprise direction in real time. By 9:00 ET you should have your session plan: which contracts you will trade, which events you will stand down for, and where your risk lives.
Marking high-impact events on your chart platform
The calendar only creates an edge if the events live where you execute. The long paragraph below is the part worth stealing.
The workflow that holds up under pressure is marking every 8:30 and 10:00 ET release as a vertical line on your chart the night before or by 9:00 ET. TradingView's economic calendar supports this directly, and its help documentation covers how events display on your charts. Marking matters because the first 5 to 10 percent of the move gets priced in fast, and by the time a headline crosses your feed the easy part of the trade is gone. A vertical line at 8:30 means you are flat or positioned before the number, not reacting after.
Pair the calendar with real-time alerts so a surprise headline reaches you in seconds, not minutes; our SMH news alert walkthrough shows how that pairing works in practice. Finviz tells you when the catalyst lands. Your chart tells you where to act.
Which Events on the Finviz Calendar Move Markets Most, and How Should Traders Prioritize Them?
Rank by expected first-move size against your contract. On NQ and ES, FOMC statements and pressers, NFP, and CPI produce the widest opens and the cleanest initial direction, so they are the only events worth flattening size for or sizing up around. Everything else is a scalp window, not a thesis.
Tier 1: FOMC, NFP, CPI
These three set the day's range on index futures more often than anything else on the calendar. The initial move typically prints within the first minute, so you want the release time marked, your chart levels pre-set, and no position that forces a decision mid-spike. If the catalyst is rate-path related, tech-heavy NQ reacts hardest, and semiconductor supply-chain headlines can extend or reverse that move (https://trytradar.com/news/category/tech-semiconductors).
Tier 2: Claims, PMIs, EIA Inventory Reports
Weekly jobless claims, ISM and S&P PMIs, and the EIA crude report move markets less but more predictably. CL trades the EIA print directly, with the initial pop often fading within minutes. GC responds to anything that shifts real-rate expectations, so Tier 2 data still matters when it contradicts the Fed narrative. Prioritize by contract: know which two events this week actually touch what you trade.
How Does Finviz's Calendar Differ from TradingView and IG Economic Calendars?
Finviz gives you a clean, free list of US releases with times and consensus figures, but no native alerts and no per-event impact ratings. TradingView adds mobile push notifications on calendar events but keeps its economic data behind its paid tiers. IG's economic calendar covers global releases with volatility indicators and is free, but it is a research page, not an alerting engine.
Comparison table: filters, alerts, impact ratings, mobile access
| Feature | Finviz | TradingView | IG |
|---|---|---|---|
| Filters (country, impact) | Limited | Yes, on paid plans | Yes |
| Push alerts on events | No | Yes, paid tiers | No |
| Impact ratings | No | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile access | Browser-based | Full app | Full app |
None of the three watches the primary source. If you trade the initial NQ move off a CPI print, a calendar row tells you when, not what just broke.
Where Guggenheim's calendar fits as a free institutional-style alternative
Guggenheim publishes a free daily economic calendar with institutional formatting. It is thorough on scheduled data but adds nothing for unscheduled catalysts. For those, a real-time feed matters more; our morning brief pairs the calendar with live alerts so scheduled and unscheduled catalysts land in one place.
Can You Filter or Customize the Finviz Economic Calendar for Your Trading Style?
Filtering by impact and country
Finviz's calendar keeps customization minimal. You can toggle between economy-specific views and filter by country, which matters if you trade GC and need China or European prints alongside US data. Impact labels help you skim for high-volatility events, but there is no saved filter, no watchlist of recurring events, and no way to hide categories you never trade. If your style is NQ-only around CPI and FOMC, you will manually re-scan the same rows every morning.
The alerting gap: what Finviz cannot push to you
Finviz's calendar is pull, not push. It will not fire a notification 60 seconds before a release, and there is no mobile alert tied to a calendar row. That is the gap: you still have to be looking at the page when the catalyst hits. For traders who need sub-minute awareness on the open, pairing the calendar with a dedicated alert tool like Tradar covers the push side while Finviz covers the planning side.
When Should You Use Finviz's Calendar Versus Its Earnings Calendar?
The economic calendar answers "when does the market move?" The earnings calendar answers "when does this specific ticker move?" For an NQ or ES scalper, scheduled macro releases like CPI and FOMC are the catalysts that set the session's range. For anyone trading individual stocks or sector-correlated futures, earnings dates are event risk you either trade or step aside from.
Use the economic calendar as your session framework: mark the times, size down into them, trade the first move. Use the earnings calendar when your instrument has single-name exposure, especially small caps and biotech where a single report can gap a stock 30% or more. Institutional calendars like the Guggenheim economic calendar focus on macro releases and omit earnings entirely, so you need both views.
The honest gap: Finviz's earnings calendar is daily and weekly snapshots, not push alerts. If you trade the print itself, pair it with a real-time alert layer.
How Do You Close the Alert Gap When Finviz's Calendar Is Not Enough?
Calendar tells you when; alerts tell you now
The Finviz calendar gives you the schedule: CPI at 8:30 ET, FOMC at 14:00 ET, EIA crude at 10:30 ET. It does not push anything to your phone the second a headline drops. For initial-move traders on NQ and ES, that gap matters. By the time you refresh a browser tab, the first 5 to 10 percent of the move is already priced in, as the Tradar store listing puts it (App Store).
The workflow is pairing, not replacing. Run Finviz for the day's scheduled events, then layer a real-time push tool for the unscheduled catalysts: headlines, Fed speakers running long, geopolitical prints. Tradar sits in that second slot, built specifically for sub-minute catalyst alerts on the contracts you trade.
Honest limits: what a calendar alone cannot do for initial-move traders
Finviz's calendar has no push alerts, no impact scoring on breaking headlines, and no trust scoring on sources. Tradar covers the alert side but does not replace a full economic calendar view, so you still need Finviz or similar for the scheduled grid. Neither tool executes. If your edge depends on sub-minute delivery, test the alert latency yourself before trusting it with size.
FAQ
Is the Finviz economic calendar free to use?
Yes. The calendar is free to view on finviz.com under the Economic Calendar tab, with no login required. You get release times in ET, consensus forecasts, prior readings, and actual prints. Finviz Elite adds real-time data and advanced charting for a subscription fee, but the calendar itself stays free.
Does Finviz show economic events for China and other non-US countries?
Yes, but coverage outside the US is thinner. You get headline China releases like Manufacturing PMI and trade balance prints, without the forecast depth, revisions, and sub-indices you would want before trading them. If you trade the overnight session, pair Finviz with TradingView or IG, which carry fuller Asia-Pacific calendars with consensus figures.
Can Finviz send push notifications when an economic report drops?
No. The calendar is pull, not push: it will not fire a notification before or on a release, and there is no mobile alert tied to a calendar row. You have to be looking at the page when the catalyst hits. For sub-minute awareness on NQ and ES opens, pair Finviz with a dedicated alert tool like Tradar.
What is the best free alternative to a Bloomberg-style economic calendar?
IG's economic calendar is the strongest free option, covering global releases with volatility indicators, though it is a research page rather than an alerting engine. Guggenheim publishes a free daily calendar with institutional formatting, thorough on scheduled data. Neither covers unscheduled catalysts, so you still need a real-time feed for headlines and Fed speakers.