I read in “mastering the trade” that you should take the whole month of august off due to low volume. John Carter (the author) mainly trades stocks. I was wondering if this applies to the forex market also? Not really intrested in an uninformed opinion on the matter. If you know something about it or have a link I could follow I’d really appreciate it. Thanks.
It does not apply to Forex. Volumes can be lower in summer, but in a trillion dollar market, there are always trades.
Thanks for the reply.
Aside from when conditions for your system aren’t right, the main times are any national bank holidays in the US, UK and in the home country of the currency pair you’re dealing with.
There’s less volume and B-team traders wobbling the price all over the place on these days.
I should really say rather than don’t trade on these days, at the very least, [B][I]don’t trade your usual system[/I][/B]
Forex will always be trading… No worries
For the stock market I have always heard “Sell in May and go away” and it seems to be pretty much true. For forex though, since the trading is worldwide instead of just a US exchange, and like people have said it trades TRILLIONS of dollars per day, there isn’t really a volume issue there. You want to avoid trading on Christmas, Easter, etc but assumedly you would be busy and taking that time off from trading anyway.
For July, big days you may want to consider taking off from trading would include today for USDCAD (Canada Day), July 4th for all US trading pretty much, and JPY for a Japanese holiday on July 21st.
BabyPips school has a short section in the 12th Grade: Market Hours on when Not to Trade. It includes:
-Fridays: Unpredictable
-Sundays: There is Little Movement (and usually higher spreads)
-Holidays: Banks are usually closed for a particular currency which means very little volume is being exchanged.
-News Reports: No one knows where the price will go; Unpredictable.
Also, dont trade a currency when its going sideways.
Alot of MT4 EA’s can tell you the direction of the trend
Trading charts are an important source of information on forex market trends, so if you want to get involved in day trading it�s important to study them on a regular basis, and to learn how to read them properly. Many sites offering forex trading education, such as forexface, cover this topic. Trading charts are a particularly useful source of information for traders interested in scalping, because they help to filter stocks that have achieved the level of resistance.
Check out the babypips guide section on trading hours 
Sideways sideways when its not moving I don’t trade but sideways as in sideways in a channel like the USD/CAD had been from Dec. to Aug. on the daily… theres good money to be made there.
And the only time that I actually see it going sideways without going up and down is when its a smaller timeframe and it dosn’t stay there very long.