The economic calendar is your roadmap for market-moving events. Best practices: (1) Every Sunday, review the week's high-impact events (★★★) — NFP, CPI, FOMC, GDP releases. These routinely cause 1-3% index moves. (2) Note the exact release time (usually 8:30 AM or 10:00 AM ET for U.S. data) and position accordingly. (3) Focus on the 'consensus' vs. 'previous' columns — markets price in consensus; surprises create volatility. A miss of more than one standard deviation often triggers outsized moves. (4) Watch for clustering — multiple releases on the same day amplify volatility. (5) Pre-position or reduce risk before high-impact events. (6) Check the revision column — revisions to previous months' data can be as market-moving as the new release. Track which releases the market is most sensitive to during the current cycle (e.g., inflation data matters more during tightening cycles).