A question received last Monday: "Are you trading today? It's a holiday but the market is open."
For future readers… Monday was 11th November 2019. Veterans Day.
And yes, the economic calendar which I use also has this listed as a US holiday. But the market is definitely open all day (or at least the index futures which I trade).
Here's my plan for holidays, because as the question noted, there are different kinds of holidays:
- Holidays where the market is closed – no trading! (Duh!)
- Holidays where the market is open for one of those "half day" sessions – no trading! I don't care if it does move. That's the low probability outcome. More likely it will be dull, lifeless, narrow range chop.
- Holidays where the market is open all day – My preference is to avoid it, but if I've got nothing better to do then let the opening structure play out and then make an assessment.
I had nothing better to do. So I let the opening structure play out. And then assessed.
How much opening structure? There's no rule here. Make an judgment call as to how much is necessary to see if there is sufficient liquidity, pace, volatility etc.
If the market opens with a gap outside the prior day's range, and outside any higher timeframe congestion, I might be satisfied just with the opening TTF price swing, or just waiting a short time period like 5-15 minutes. Then assessing.
Or on days like today, where the market opened within the prior days range, I will wait a bit longer.
I was completely comfortable with no trades. But if I could see edge, then let's play.
For readers of the YTC Price Action Trader – The Principle being applied here, and in fact the reason for the whole trade, should be obvious. If not, email me.
One winner. And one loser. Just a small day, but it is a "holiday" session and I'm happy with nothing.
Of great importance though – the loser is much smaller in size than the winner.
Which reminds me of one of the most important points I've shared over the years at YTC, accepting of course that a two trade sample size is way too small (but the concept is what is important)… what if you could be happy with a 50% win rate, and learn to profit from a positive Win/Loss Size Ratio?
Ok, so back to the main point of the article:
Here's my plan for holidays, because as the question noted, there are different kinds of holidays:
- Holidays where the market is closed – no trading! (Duh!)
- Holidays where the market is open for one of those "half day" sessions – no trading! I don't care if it does move. That's the low probability outcome. More likely it will be dull, lifeless, narrow range chop.
- Holidays where the market is open all day – My preference is to avoid it, but if I've got nothing better to do then let the opening structure play out and then make an assessment.
Happy trading,
Lance Beggs