I feel like I remember someone somewhere saying that August is a slow month. Something about low liquidity. It was brought up in the context of a warning to traders to be “careful” this month because of this.
Yesterday did feel a bit slow and today is starting out the same, so maybe there’s some truth in this.
So what’s this all about? Is August a slow month? Is there low liquidity? If so, why? And why should traders beware?
Yes…its slow.
August is holiday month. Notorious.
Certainly August and December are consistently my lowest-return months of the year, with August being bottom.
There is no such thing as a slow month, maybe a more challenging one but certainly not slow. There are always opportunities out there.
Just taken this from one of Clint’s post last year, thanks Clint.
The so-called “summer doldrums” which you referred to do not show up on forex calendars. There is no specific start or end to the “doldrums” period, just a gradual winding down of trading volume sometime around mid-summer, and a return to normal sometime in the autumn.
Lower trading volume during this period wouldn’t matter to traders, except for the fact that it’s usually accompanied by some deterioration in trends. As a result, often during the summer doldrums, some traders find markets to be fickle and hard to trade.
Read more: 301 Moved Permanently]
It is .
I’m making a mental memo to remind myself that when I make it big, I’ll be taking the month of August off.
It is!
Alot of people take holiday off in August, or have kids to look after due to school holidays.
Certainly in financial services August is a very quiet month…not that i am complaining i’ve literally spent the last two weeks watching the Olympics at work 
But dont worry there are still trades to make profit from!
I generally go away for three weeks every August, purely because of the market, so imho it’s a good plan!
Well…I caught the huge push up on both E/U and G/U today for multiple positions (buying more as it went up as I moved my s/l to B.E. once the price reached R1 for each position)…so maybe I’ll keep August on the schedule after all.
Too bad it was only a demo.
its no wonder august is your lowest paying month- you only have 1 week of august trading and 3 weeks of play.
Yes, August is a slow month. The trading details of the month is showing this.
Lol okay, no need to be combative about it - it was my slowest month for my first two years of trading, now I go away each August because the work is dull and the kids are off school, but as we go away to our own property and have a wireless network there I trade end of day during the three weeks away, I tend not to trade intraday during that period as it is often more spiky. I took 7% last week so it’s all good, but I do still find it the worst month of the year, it’s more inconsistent than others owing to lower liquidity etc. So it’s a good time to go away to cheer things up, but I still trade it. As I’m full time I’d rather not leave a complete gap each year as I like to keep in a rhythm.
All I meant was it’s a patchier month so I go away to take advantage of the time afforded by the leaner intraday opportunities.
I sat in front of the screen starting 1hr before London open until Noon eastern time. I’m not a scalper so it was like watching paint dry.
Guess I better get used to it. I’m betting there will be a lot more days like this. My strategy is based on the M5 charts and requires me to be in front of the screen during those prescribed hours…slow day or not.
This actually a good post (not saying your other are not) but august was a bad month for me last year along with most of September. In fact last year my trading didnt get back on track till October to be honest. This year it looks to be repeating. I have had computer issues that I am sure have contributed to it. After going back over my charts though I see I really did not miss much. Hoping my short holds out to get this month back in the black. I was going to look into seasonal tendencies as that might have been my problem but you are not the only seasoned trader that says it is best to get a hobby for this time of year. That I did I have been doing a lot of fishing and stuff so I am happy.