An economic calendar lists scheduled market-moving events, earnings dates and economic data releases, so you can see what hits your holdings before it lands. PortfolioTrackr builds one into the app on the trial, Pro and Lifetime plans, showing the week ahead for the names you already hold.
What is an economic calendar for investors?
An economic calendar is a schedule of upcoming events that tend to move markets, grouped by date so you can plan around them. The two kinds that matter most to a portfolio holder are company earnings dates and economic data releases such as inflation prints, central bank rate decisions and jobs reports.
The point is not prediction. The point is that you stop getting surprised. If you hold AAPL and it reports on a Thursday after the close, a calendar means you knew that on Monday rather than finding out from a 6% gap the next morning.
- Earnings dates affect the individual stocks you hold.
- Economic releases affect whole markets, sectors and currencies at once.
- Scheduled is the keyword: these have known dates and times in advance.
The problem: your portfolio gets blindsided by events you could have seen coming
Most retail investors find out about a market-moving event after it has already moved their holdings. A rate decision lands at 2pm, a stock gaps on earnings overnight, and the first you hear of it is a red number on your home screen the next day.
The information was never hidden. Earnings dates are published weeks ahead, and central banks announce their meeting schedules a year in advance. The problem is that it lives scattered across a dozen company investor-relations pages and government statistics sites, none of which know what you actually own.
That gap creates three recurring headaches:
- You hold a name through its earnings date without realising earnings were that week.
- A macro release moves a whole sector you are concentrated in, and you had no idea it was on the calendar.
- You spend hours cross-referencing generic calendars against your own holdings, by hand.
A calendar that is tied to your portfolio closes that gap. Instead of a wall of every event on earth, you see the subset that touches names you hold.
What the PortfolioTrackr economic calendar actually does
PortfolioTrackr has a built-in economic calendar that shows scheduled market-moving events for the week ahead, so a portfolio holder can see what is coming before it arrives. It covers earnings dates and economic releases, laid out by day.
Concretely, it surfaces the two things that drive most of the surprise moves in a typical portfolio:
- Earnings dates for the companies you hold, so you know which of your positions report this week.
- Economic data releases such as inflation figures, rate decisions and employment reports that move the broader market.
It sits alongside the rest of the app, so the same place where you watch your holdings grouped by asset type also tells you which of those holdings has something scheduled. You are not switching tabs between a tracker and a separate calendar website.
What it does not do
The calendar shows scheduled events; it does not predict outcomes. It will tell you a company reports on Thursday. It will not tell you whether the number will beat, miss or how the stock will react. That distinction matters, and we come back to it below under the honest limits.
How to set up the economic calendar step by step
Setting up the calendar takes a few minutes and mostly depends on having your holdings in the app first. Here is the order a real user would follow.
- Get on a plan that includes it. The calendar is available on the free trial, Pro and Lifetime plans. If you are on Starter, it is not included (see the plan table below).
- Add your holdings. Enter positions by hand, by voice or text, from a CSV import, or from a broker screenshot. Manual entry and import work on every plan, so you never have to connect a broker to use them.
- Connect a broker if you prefer sync. This is optional. Direct sync with Alpaca, Bybit and Interactive Brokers works on every plan, and 42 brokers connect through the SnapTrade bridge on Pro or Lifetime. The full walkthrough is in our guide to connecting a brokerage account to a portfolio tracker.
- Open the calendar view. Once your holdings are in, the calendar can map earnings dates to the tickers you actually own.
- Scan the week. Check which of your positions report and which broad releases land, then plan your attention accordingly.
Because each connected broker gets its own read-only portfolio and the ALL PORTFOLIOS combined view works for anyone with more than one portfolio, the calendar can reflect everything you hold across accounts in one place.
What you see once the calendar is working
Once your holdings are loaded, the calendar lays out the week as a dated list of scheduled events tied to what you own. The value is in the connection: these are not generic events, they are events that touch your names.
On a normal week you might see something like this across your positions:
- Monday: a eurozone inflation release relevant to your European holdings.
- Wednesday: a central bank rate decision that moves rate-sensitive sectors.
- Thursday: an earnings date for a large-cap you hold, reporting after the close.
- Friday: a monthly jobs report that tends to move the broad index.
That is enough to change how you manage your week. You know not to be surprised by a Thursday-night gap. You know Friday morning may be noisy market-wide. None of that is a signal to trade; it is simply knowing the terrain.
The calendar pairs naturally with a watchlist and price alerts. Alerts in PortfolioTrackr are price levels only: a target or a stop level you set yourself. The calendar tells you an event is coming; a price alert tells you when one of your own levels is reached, checked once a minute while the market is open and around the clock for crypto.
The honest limits you need to know
The economic calendar has real limits, and being straight about them is more useful than overselling. Here are the ones that matter.
Starter does not include the calendar
The Starter plan does not include the economic calendar. The free trial does, and so do Pro and Lifetime. If you are evaluating the feature, use the trial; if you are on Starter long term and want the calendar, it is a Pro or Lifetime feature. We would rather you know that now than discover it after subscribing.
It shows scheduled events, not outcomes
The calendar lists what is scheduled. It does not forecast results, direction or magnitude. Knowing that MSFT reports Thursday is not the same as knowing what the stock does Friday. The calendar removes the surprise of timing, nothing more.
It is not an alert system
The calendar is a planning view, not a notification engine. It does not ping you about an earnings date, and PortfolioTrackr has no news, earnings, dividend or analyst-rating alerts of any kind. The only alerts are the price levels you set yourself. If you want to be told when a price is hit, that is a separate watchlist feature.
It does not tell you what to do
PortfolioTrackr reports facts and your own status, never instructions. The calendar shows you the week; it does not suggest trimming, adding or sitting out. That is deliberate, and it is covered in our piece on whether to let an AI agent trade your portfolio.
Which plan includes the economic calendar?
The economic calendar is on the trial, Pro and Lifetime plans and not on Starter. Here is how it sits against a few related features so you can see the gating at a glance.
| Feature | Trial | Starter | Pro / Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
| Economic calendar | Yes | No | Yes |
| Manual, voice, CSV import | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Direct broker sync | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Watchlist tickers | 10 | 10 | 50 |
The import and sync tools are not gated behind the calendar, so you can build and run a portfolio on any plan. The calendar is the specific piece that needs the trial, Pro or Lifetime.
Who the economic calendar is for, and who it is not for
The economic calendar fits investors who hold individual names and want to stop being surprised by scheduled events. It is less useful for a few specific profiles, and that is worth saying plainly.
It is a good fit if you:
- Hold individual stocks that report earnings and want to know which report this week.
- Run a concentrated or sector-heavy portfolio exposed to macro releases.
- Already track multiple accounts and want one calendar across them all.
- Prefer planning your week over reacting to overnight gaps.
It is a weaker fit if you:
- Hold only broad index ETFs and never trade around single-name earnings.
- Want outcome predictions or trade signals, which the calendar does not provide.
- Are on Starter and do not want to move to a plan that includes it.
- Run a buy-and-hold strategy where scheduled timing simply does not change anything you do.
If you are weighing the whole product rather than one feature, our data comparison of six portfolio trackers puts the calendar in context against the rest of what the app does.
The bottom line
An economic calendar turns scattered, hard-to-find event dates into one weekly view tied to the holdings you actually own. PortfolioTrackr builds it in on the trial, Pro and Lifetime plans, covering earnings dates and economic releases, and it is honest about what it is: a planning tool that shows scheduled events, not a predictor of outcomes.
Use it to know what is coming, check how your positions sit against your own targets, and stop finding out about events after they have already moved your portfolio. It will not tell you what to do, and it is not on Starter, but for an investor holding individual names it removes a real and recurring source of surprise.
Frequently asked questions
What is an economic calendar in investing?
An economic calendar is a schedule of upcoming market-moving events, mainly company earnings dates and economic data releases like inflation prints and rate decisions. It lets investors see what is coming for the week ahead so scheduled events do not catch their portfolio by surprise.
Does PortfolioTrackr include an economic calendar?
Yes. PortfolioTrackr has a built-in economic calendar showing scheduled earnings dates and economic releases for the week ahead. It is available on the free trial, Pro and Lifetime plans. The Starter plan does not include it, so use the trial to evaluate the feature.
Does the economic calendar predict stock prices?
No. The calendar shows scheduled events, it does not predict outcomes. It tells you when a company reports or when a data release lands, but not whether the result will beat, miss, or how the price will react. It removes timing surprises, not uncertainty.
Is the economic calendar on the Starter plan?
No, the economic calendar is not included on the Starter plan. It is available on the free trial, Pro and Lifetime plans. Import tools, direct broker sync and the combined ALL PORTFOLIOS view are available on every plan, including Starter.
What is the difference between the calendar and price alerts?
The economic calendar shows scheduled upcoming events like earnings dates. Price alerts tell you when a price level you set yourself is reached, checked once a minute while the market is open and around the clock for crypto. The calendar is for planning; alerts are for your own target levels.