The best traders don’t take weekends off. Yes, most markets are not active, but this doesn’t mean nothing happens during these two days. Currency markets are always active during these times, and the executives of companies are still making decisions and announcements that will affect stock prices and the indices that carry them. And the farmers, miners, weather conditions, and everything else that affects the prices of commodities are still active. And for these reasons, you need to be paying attention to them. What they do will impact where prices go Monday morning, and when every other professional in the industry is prepared and you are not, you’ll be left behind.
You don’t need to do a ton of research, but you do need to be aware of major issues. Did IBM announce a merger with another company? Is there a shortage of workers in Australia to extract gold from their mines, and decreasing availability? What about currencies? Is the Bank of Japan making a major move that will bump up the yen and drive down other major currencies? There are tons of these little questions to think about, and if something worthwhile does happen, you need to be able to evaluate the type of impact that it will have and then be prepared to act. Continue reading What to Do With Your Weekends