Holidays

This is my first end of year trading and I wonder what exactly happens over the holidays and in particular between xmas and new year?
- Are the markets actually closed?
- Or is it just low levels of trading?
- Or could we see big irratic moves due to low volume and individual participants trying to move the markets? (like happened during US thxgiving)

Good question Geldmeister. It is my first year end, too. It would be interesting to see what others have experienced. I went back to the historical data and saw that pre-holidays there was one day at EURUSD where the pair moved 17 (!) Pips in a whole day!!!! Scarry.

Then after New Years eve it moved like 200 in one single day....

Here is a hypothetic question. Could the East or Middle East take advantage of the West during holiday time? If there are only a few players around, and they don't care about Christmas time, do they have the power to move a currencies value in whatever direction they want? Would it make sense, to them?

I'm just thinking. Lets say EURO ends up 1.3400 before Christmas (hypothetically). Now some lonely players of Asia/Arab countries come along and short this thing. Aggressively bringing it down to 1.3000. In order to make money they would need buyers down there...would Europeans/Americans (after they're awakening) mostlikely take it back from there (therefore giving the lonely players what they wanted) or continue to short?

I'm curious about YOUR thinking process. Mine might be flawed. I'm just wondering if there are times where it is POSSIBLE to tame the beast....

Peter.

Anybody?

Do you actually trade during holidays?

Peter.

I believe most people stay out. I heard of more people losing money during this time of year than making. Personaly i'll be staing out. I might miss another thanksgiving but i might also save myself from some loses due to eratic or extremely volatile market behavior.
Sergiu

Last year, when i still was trading FOREX before switching to futures, I attempted to trade in the open days between Christmas and New Years.

Fortunately for me, the system i was using back then didnt produce any entry signal. Volumes were extremely low and I hardly remember seeing any type of considerable move.

All I remember from last year's holidays is me sitting in front of my computer getting bored and asking myself: "what the hell are you doing here?"

However, I remember on January 2nd EURUSD went up by close to 200 pips and I wasn't ready to trade it as I feared we could still be in some sort of holiday mood.

My advice is:

spend time with your family and loved ones until January 2nd. Get some rest, and if you really miss the markets, do some research or review your trades.

Just think about it: professional traders take advantage of holidays to rest, go home to their families, travel, etc...

No pros in the market translates into chop and greedy retail traders fighting against each other...not exactly the type of market I like to trade.

Happy Holidays everyone by the way.