Educational use only — not investment advice. See full disclaimer in README.md. Listing a source is not an endorsement; verify anything market-moving against a primary source before acting, and treat opinion/analysis as opinion, not fact.
The daily loop tells you to “check the calendar,” “check for a catalyst,” and “check IV Rank” — this file says where to get each. Organized by the job it does in your workflow, because a source that’s great for an economic calendar is useless for options IV data. Pick one or two per row and standardize your routine; you don’t need all of them.
The golden rule of sources: for anything that moves price — an earnings date, a Fed decision, a CPI print — confirm against the primary source (the company’s IR page, the BLS/Fed release, the exchange). News outlets paraphrase, lag, and occasionally get it wrong. Use news to find things; use primary sources to act.
1. Economic calendar — what macro events hit, and when (Step 0 / Catalyst tag)
You need exact date and time (pre-market vs intraday) for FOMC, CPI, PCE, jobs (NFP), GDP, retail sales.
| Source | Notes |
|---|---|
| Investing.com Economic Calendar | Free, filterable by country/importance; the retail standard. Shows consensus vs prior vs actual. |
| Trading Economics | Clean, reliable consensus figures. |
| Econoday / MarketWatch calendar | Widely used; MarketWatch is free. |
| Your broker’s calendar (thinkorswim, IBKR, Schwab) | Often built in — convenient, already beside your positions. |
| Primary: Federal Reserve · BLS (CPI/jobs) · BEA (GDP/PCE) | The source of truth — confirm here when it matters. |
2. Earnings calendar — when single names report (Step 0 / Opportunity selection)
Mandatory before any single-stock options trade — never get caught holding short premium into an earnings gap.
| Source | Notes |
|---|---|
| Earnings Whispers | Confirmed dates + before/after market timing; the retail favorite for accuracy. |
| Nasdaq / Investing.com / TipRanks earnings calendars | Free, broad coverage. |
| Your broker | thinkorswim/IBKR flag earnings on the chain — easiest to not miss. |
| Primary: the company’s Investor Relations page | The only fully authoritative date; outlets occasionally list estimates as confirmed. |
3. Options & volatility data — IV Rank, expected move, flow, OI (Tags / Opportunity selection)
This is options-specific data — general news sites don’t have it.
| Source | Notes |
|---|---|
| Your broker platform (thinkorswim, Tastytrade, IBKR) | Primary tool. IV Rank/Percentile, the option chain, expected move, Greeks — all live here. Tastytrade displays IVR prominently. |
| barchart.com | Free IV Rank/Percentile, OI, unusual-options screeners. |
| Market Chameleon | Earnings expected-moves, historical post-earnings reactions, IV term structure (some free, more paid). |
| CBOE | The source for VIX, VIX term structure, index settlement specs (SET/SOQ). |
| OptionCharts / Unusual Whales / FlowAlgo | Options flow & dealer-positioning (mostly paid; “optional” per the guide — flow is a medium-value input, not mandatory). |
4. Market news & analysis — what’s happening and why (context, catalysts, theses)
Use to find catalysts and gauge sentiment — not as a trade trigger by itself.
| Source | Tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bloomberg | Real-time / institutional | Gold standard for market news & data; terminal is pricey but Bloomberg.com covers the essentials. Fast, accurate. |
| Reuters | Real-time | Fast, factual wire service; excellent for breaking headlines. Free. |
| Wall Street Journal (WSJ) | Markets/business | Deep markets & corporate coverage; paywalled. |
| Financial Times (FT) | Global/macro | Strong macro, global, and rates coverage; paywalled. |
| Benzinga | Retail/fast | Fast headlines, earnings, analyst rating changes, squawk; retail-oriented, lighter analysis — good for speed, verify before acting. |
| Seeking Alpha | Analysis/opinion | Crowd-sourced deep dives & earnings breakdowns. Treat as opinion, quality varies widely — useful for the bear/bull case, not as fact. |
| The Economist | Macro/weekly | Big-picture macro & geopolitics; weekly cadence — context, not timing. |
| New York Times (NYT) | General/macro | Broad business & economic context; not a trading-specific source. |
| CNBC / MarketWatch / Yahoo Finance | Free/retail | Free, fast, ubiquitous; fine for quotes, headlines, and calendars. Yahoo Finance is a solid free quote/chart/calendar hub. Treat punditry as noise. |
How to weight these: Bloomberg/Reuters/WSJ/FT = fast and reliable for facts. Benzinga/CNBC/Yahoo = fast and free, lighter — good for spotting that something happened, then confirm. Seeking Alpha/Economist/NYT = analysis and context (opinion), useful for building a thesis, never a trigger on their own.
5. Charts, technicals & breadth — trend, S/R, relative strength, breadth (Market assessment)
| Source | Notes |
|---|---|
| TradingView | The retail charting standard — trend, support/resistance, relative strength, alerts. Free tier is generous. |
| Your broker charts | Already beside your order ticket; fine for most needs. |
| StockCharts / Finviz | Finviz: free heatmaps, sector performance, screeners (great for relative strength and sector rotation in opportunity selection). |
| Market breadth: advance/decline, % above 50-DMA | On StockCharts ($SPXA50R), barchart, or your platform. |
6. A practical default stack (you don’t need everything)
A clean, mostly-free routine that covers the whole loop:
Economic calendar → Investing.com (or your broker)
Earnings calendar → Earnings Whispers (or your broker)
IV Rank / chain → your broker (+ barchart for screening)
Charts / breadth → TradingView (+ Finviz for sector RS)
News (fast facts) → Reuters / Bloomberg.com / CNBC
News (analysis) → WSJ or FT (one paid sub if you want depth) + Seeking Alpha for the bull/bear case
VIX / index specs → CBOE
Standardize this once and run the same sources every morning — consistency beats coverage. Checking ten outlets daily is how you find noise and reasons to over-trade; checking the same trusted few is how you stay disciplined.
Used in: 00-daily-workflow.md Step 0 (events), 01-market-assessment.md (tags), 07-opportunity-selection.md (catalysts & RS).
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