Why scheduled data releases are the worst time to hold leverage, a simple timing rule, and the crypto-specific events that belong on your calendar.
Inflation prints, rate decisions, and jobs reports move Bitcoin one to three percent in minutes, in either direction, while spreads widen and liquidity thins. A leveraged position through that window is a coin flip at bad odds: the move is large, the direction is unknown, and your stop will be filled far from where you placed it.
Flatten or cut size sharply thirty minutes before a major release. Wait fifteen minutes after it for spreads to normalize and the first reaction to show its hand. Then trade the post-event structure if your plan allows it. The best trade through an event is usually no trade.
Large token unlocks, ETF flow days, exchange maintenance windows, and options expiries. Put them on the same calendar. They are less dramatic than a rate decision but they are known in advance, which means ignoring them is a choice.
If you want to learn how an event trades, watch it with a paper position. Seeing a 100x simulated long wiped at 8:30 a.m. Eastern teaches the lesson at zero cost, and you will not need to learn it again with real money.