Tomorrow is the last regular trading day of this week (i.e. Thursday is the start of the Christmas and New Year holidays for some markets), so I want to say Merry Christmas to all of the day trading site's visitors, and post the exchange holiday schedules again (with the addition of the NSE in India):
US Markets
European Markets
Asian Markets
Note that some of the above holiday calendars include all of the necessary information (e.g. completely closed days, partially closed days, and modified trading times), but some of them only include the days that their markets are completely closed, with the days that their markets are partially closed shown separately (e.g. under the calendar). In other words, make sure that you check your markets' holiday schedules carefully, so that you know about all of the modifications to their trading times.
The sixth pair of the japanese candlestick patterns that require two individual candlesticks are the bullish meeting lines and the bearish meeting lines. The bullish and bearish meeting lines patterns are quite easy to identify on a price chart, and in the appropriate context they can be used as trade entry and trade exit signals.
There are only a few news releases from the US and Europe this week, but many news releases from Asia. The US has four high volatility news releases, while Europe has two high volatility news releases, and Asia has two high volatility news releases. Markets from all three regions will probably experience some significant volatility and price movement at some point this week (depending upon if and when they celebrate Christmas).
The US, European, and Asian news releases for this week are as follows (all times are Greenwich Mean Time, which is one hour behind Central European Time, and five hours ahead of US Eastern Time) :
US
- Monday: No News Releases
- Tuesday: OPEC Meeting at ??:?? ?? (Unknown Time), GDP at 1:30 PM, and Existing Home Sales, HPI, and Manufacturing Index at 3:00 PM
- Wednesday: PCE Price Index, Personal Spending, and Personal Income at 1:30 PM, Consumer Sentiment, and Inflation Expectations at 2:55 PM, New Home Sales at 3:00 PM, and Oil Inventories at 3:30 PM
- Thursday: Durable Goods Orders, and Unemployment Claims at 1:30 PM, and Natural Gas Storage at 3:30 PM
- Friday: No News Releases
- This week's US news releases that should cause high volatility are shown in bold type. There are only a few US news releases this week, and four high volatility news releases. The US markets will probably experience some significant volatility and price movement at the beginning of this week.
Europe
- Monday : Switzerland Central Bank Bulletin at 10:00 AM
- Tuesday : Germany Consumer Climate at 7:00 AM, OPEC Meeting at ??:?? ?? (Unknown Time), Switzerland Trade Balance at 7:15 AM, UK Current Account, and GDP at 9:30 AM, and Belgium Business Climate at 2:00 PM
- Wednesday : Germany Import Prices at 7:00 AM, France Consumer Spending at 7:45 AM, Italy Retail Sales at 9:00 AM, and UK MPC Meeting, Mortgage Approvals, and Index of Services at 9:30 AM
- Thursday : No News Releases
- Friday : No News Releases
- This week's European news releases that should cause high volatility are shown in bold type. There are only a few European news releases this week, and two high volatility news releases. The European markets will probably experience significant volatility and price movement at the beginning of this week.
Asia
- Monday : Australia New Vehicle Sales at 12:30 AM, New Zealand Credit Card Spending at 2:00 AM, Japan Industry Activity at 4:30 AM, Japan Central Bank News Conference at 5:00 AM, New Zealand Current Account at 9:45 PM, and Australia Leading Index at 11:00 PM
- Tuesday : Japan Central Bank News Conference at 7:00 AM, OPEC Meeting at ??:?? ?? (Unknown Time), and New Zealand GDP at 9:45 PM
- Wednesday : Japan Manufacturing Index, and Monetary Policy at 11:50 PM
- Thursday : Japan Central Bank News Conference at 5:15 AM, Japan Household Spending, CPI, and Unemployment Rate at 11:30 PM, and Japan CPSI at 11:50 PM
- Friday : Japan Housing Starts at 5:00 AM
- This week's Asian news releases that should cause high volatility are shown in bold type. There are several Asian news releases this week, and two high volatility news releases. The Asian markets will probably experience significant volatility and price movement throughout this week.
"Day traders should never hold a trade overnight", "Do not make any trades the day before a holiday weekend", how about "Do not make any trades today if you had soup for dinner last night", or "Only make long trades if your wife or husband is wearing pink socks".
There are many so called trading rules that are frequently quoted in trading books, on trading web sites, and in trading rooms. While experienced traders may be able to determine for themselves which trading rules make sense and which should be dismissed and/or laughed at, new traders may not be able to make this determination, so I will help them do so, by providing guess what, another trading rule.
The only trading rule that should be abided by is "Do not pay attention to any trading rules, except this one". Successful trading does not require adherence to any trading rules, and what's more, adhering to an incorrect trading rule could cause you to lose money.
Humans like rules of thumb, old wives' tales, and proverbs, and in day to day life this may be okay, but not in trading. Remember that in trading, anything that the majority (i.e. the herd) likes is usually wrong, so if a trading rule is popular enough that you have heard about it, it is most likely something that should be avoided.
If you know of any trading rules that are so incorrect that they definitely need to be avoided, or that are just so funny that you want to share them, post the trading rules in a blog comment, and I will compile a list of the worst and funniest trading rules.
