There are even TA-only guys who are so afraid of the first Friday that they stay out of the market! - mind you I'm guessing that bit, but I've seen the posts about it being a lottery etc etc. Hmmm... I am digging a hole here, next month I can sense the challenges, ah well, hands up, I only trade them when FA says it's ok, doesn't happen often but I had a sense today would be one of those very special days. Spotted a TA specialist, guru, marketer, salesman, whatever, say in a webinar that the one indicator that all traders must never use is ........news - apparently people pay him for this info, along with a special secret indicator with a fancy name (it is 8/15 ema crossover), anyways I digress. Today, I shorted Eur/Usd at 13.28 gmt - and then after the release closed a 3 day short on the S&P. Both trades using the dreaded 'do not use' tool. The s&p did use some etf and ta analysis, but was influenced by FA the fx trade today had zero input from the charts, hadn't even a chart open, just sell at market 2 mins before NFP. Why was it so simple? - well think about this, if you are a really smart central banker, lots of big offices, staff, computers, sizeable budget, appointed by committee, approved by the Governors, would you want to look silly before the entire market, would you say something contrary to the information on your desk? So when you make a hawkish statement, sending the USD upward on Oct28, would you then expect a bad NFP a week later?, some might think she is stupid, but she's not that stupid.