Financial literacy gained at YEN Kura's Investment University (Academia) | Episode 8 [YEN Kura]

YEN Zō's Profile

Enzō. With over 20 years as a foreign exchange dealer at U.S.-based Citibank, U.K.-based Standard Chartered Bank, and other foreign banks, he currently trades as a top professional in currencies, Nikkei 225, Nikkei options, and individual stocks. He is the representative director of ADVANCE Co., Ltd., specializing in investment information distribution. He has deep expertise not only in major currencies such as the dollar and euro but also in dealing with emerging currencies, including Asian currencies. He also maintains close relationships with traders and fund industry professionals overseas.

Mail Magazine:YEN Zō Real-Time Top Trading
Blog:YEN Zō's FX Investment Techniques - Investing in the World with Dollars, Yen, Euro, Pound, and Australian Dollar
Twitter:https://twitter.com/YENZOU

*This article is a reprint/edit of FX攻略.com's September 2020 issue. Please note that the market data described in the article may not reflect current market conditions.

Hard Data and Soft Data

There are two kinds of economic indicators: hard data and soft data. Hard data refers to metrics with concrete figures, encompassing past values that reflect actual economic activity such as production and employment.

A representative hard data indicator is Gross Domestic Product (GDP). GDP measures the value added created by domestic production activity. Other hard data include retail sales, employment statistics, housing starts, trade balance, and price indices. In a sense, they are numerical records of real performance—like an economic report card. Since these figures are released after the fact, they are lagging indicators.

On the other hand, soft data refers more to the psychological state of businesses and consumers rather than specific economic numbers. Soft data consists of sentiment and expectations gathered through surveys and is data that the market has been paying attention to recently.