This strategy involves taking positions in currency for example the Euro, and the pound, and index instruments such as the Dow Jones, S&P500, and the NASDAQ prior to major economic releases. Positions can be taken two to one day, to even hours and minutes before the announcement. This strategy does incorporate significant risk, and investors are advised to have stop losses in place at the time of opening the position.

The time horizon for holing a position can either be a very short time frame, just for a few minutes, to a day or so after the news event. Highly liquid stocks can be traded in the same way as the indices.