As the holiday approaches, it is time for me to take a short break, review my year and set goals for the next one. And I’m not just talking about setting financial or trading goals for the next year. If you are trading, you probably already have a trading goal but likely you would have missed out goals in other areas of your life: Family, Social, Personal Improvement, Education (other than trading related), health and fitness, etc.
It’s important to have some balance in our lives, and to achieve that, it is important to plan for it!
I’ve often heard of people saying that the best time to take a break from trading is in December. Personally, it’s because of the festive season and for the reasons I mentioned above. I like what Jeff Quinto wrote in this article : Trading Smarter, Not Harder – Making Your Own Holiday Trading Schedule
Here is how to trade smarter, not harder, this Holiday season. The first 2½-3 weeks of December can be excellent for trading. Every year traders tell me they were surprised at how good their trading was in the first part of December. The markets are liquid and volatile for the first 2½-3 weeks of December and, then, on the Friday a week before Christmas (December 17th this year), this exciting market comes to a screeching halt and remains quiet for the last two weeks of the year.
Therefore, resolve to stop trading for the year on Friday, December 17th and concentrate your attention on having the Merriest of Christmases and the Happiest of New Years.
As for January, traders come back from the holidays on January 3rd ready to start what they hope will be their best year ever. Instead of the predicted great start to the New Year, they very often get “cooked” during the first few trading days of the New Year. This typical slow start for the new year is due to the fact that many “other time-frame traders” take several days to several weeks to restart their trading and re-establish the positions they closed out in December to secure their year-end bonuses.
My advice is to avoid the first full week of the year, altogether. This year, go someplace warm and extend your holiday to January 10th. By doing so, you will have avoided a potentially disappointing start to the year and you will arrive on January 10th prepared to confidently face 2011 fully rested and nicely tanned – ready to begin your best trading year, ever.
I’m taking his advice and wrapping up my trading activities for the year. I will analyze my trade for this year (as how I described in my earlier post : Trade Statement Analysis (Fun with Monte Carlo), and share the results with everyone here.
