Get The Best from Holidays

May 28, 2010

Generally speaking, I'm a big fan of holidays.

They provide a great break in the action, a welcome respite from the strains and stresses of everyday activity, whether that stress is generated in the markets or simply in the ebb and flow of the regular opportunities and emergencies that define our daily lives.

As astro-traders, we can use holiday breaks to step back and get a fresh perspective on our trading, our money management goals, and our longer-term assessments of our involvement with the markets.

That's not to say, however, that we need to use up all of our holiday time poring over earnings reports and analyzing horoscopes and stock market charts. Holidays are for fun and relaxation, too! And even if we don't actively engage in market analysis during a holiday break, our subconscious minds are typically hard at work, finding new and ever more creative answers to the puzzles that confront us in the markets.

When we get those answers, the results are sometimes delightful and surprisingly creative. At the very least, we can expect to come away from a holiday with enhanced clarity about the strategies we need to use in keeping our portfolios sound and in keeping ourselves perpetually open to the fresh opportunities that the markets offer us.

But in addition to their ability to help us in recharging our personal batteries, holidays can also sometimes offer us unexpected chances for fine-tuning our market timing. For example, historical research reveals that various markets respond in specific ways during the two days that precede the start of a holiday, setting up opportunities for the savvy-astro traders who are willing to do their homework and find out the particular holiday behavior of the markets they are trading.

Compiling that kind of information takes a good bit of persistence and back-testing, but it's worth the extra effort. In many cases, a proftible plan for short-term trading is to buy stocks just before a holiday and then sell them soon afterwards. Longer-term players may prefer to open positions just prior to holidays and then hold them until the end of the calendar year.

The choice is yours, of course. But whatever you do, don't waste the holiday! During the holiday itself, you can refine your strategy and get ready for maximum profits. And once you start taking the best positions possible and reaping the rewards, you'll probably soon find that you're a big fan of holidays, too!

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CHECK YOUR CALENDAR FOR MARKET HOLIDAYS

You'll find a listing of the holidays for markets in the U.S. and Canada at http://www.financialcyclesweekly.com/public/904.cfm?sd=2

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