Wanna take some time off from trading?
Don’t.
I’ve said it before, one of the biggest mistakes I have made in my trading career was justify taking some time off of trading.
There is no better way to miss out on almost every big move than to take time off. Big moves that would have easily erased any amount of futility you would have experienced by sticking through the tough times.
We should never experience burnout either. We trade the daily chart for chrissakes. We’re blessed.
To be clear, “taking a break” means taking days to weeks to months off from trading because you’re going through a rough period of drawdown.
Let’s go over some reasons why you may be compelled to do this.
1 – “There’s Not Enough Volume in the Market”
Even though we’re trend traders, this is inexcusable.
First off, you would have been sitting out much of 2019 to the end of 2021.
“But there was inadequate volume, VP. I just saved a lot of money.
This is NOT a win. You lost 3 years of reps!!
I cannot overstate how important experience is. I only talk about it all the time.
No matter how good volume is now, and how it may be in the future, you will greatly lag behind the people who trudged through the bad times. This is almost a given.
“But I’ll have more money than them”
At first maybe. But they’ll make it up in record time. Now you’re toast.
Volume is our oxygen, we’ve spoken about this many times, but our system still works if there is none, you just have to make a shift.
I know there was an absolute bottom where I considered stopping, but I simply dropped down to smaller timeframes instead. I hated it, but it had to be some, and my system still made money.
A big shout out who not only built their systems and got their reps in through the dark years of Forex volume, but even became professional traders during this time.
You’re damn near unstoppable at this point.
But I’m bringing this up, because if we ever fall into another period of dead volume, especially after what we’ve gotten to experience in 2022, there will be a big group of you who want to take your ball and go home because situations aren’t supremely favorable.
In this case, you should take your ball and go home. And stay home.
2 – “The News Cycle is Crazy Right Now”
This is the excuse du jour.
Markets don’t react the way they used to. The Fed seems to control everything today. And any hint of what they might do can either move the market and/or give the Banks an excuse to fuck up everybody’s trades.
To make matters worse, countries who almost never raise their rates are either raising or considering raising their rates now.
It’s more news to avoid than there was before.
People have been asking me to make an updates video on Forex News, in particular, updating my list of events to avoid.
Two responses to this:
When you make a video, unless you delete it, it’s on social media forever. You can’t change it.
As of right now, we don’t have a lot of consistency with these events, at all. It could all easily change in a couple months.
Contrast this with when I put out the first Forex News video back in early 2019, when the amount of news we had to avoid or stop avoiding rarely changed.
I will likely make a new video once things have either settled down, or have at least showed me how this craziness is just how it’s going to be going forward.
Secondly, back when I put the first News video out, I was the authority on the subject.
Nobody had been trading the NNFX system long enough to do this effectively on their own, nor had they discovered the tools I had at that point.
But that’s not the case anymore.
If you’re experienced enough in this system, you can put together a list every bit as easily as I can. You don’t need to rely on me. I don’t provide any advantage other than simply doing the work for you, which you guys know I don’t love.
There is also a News Avoidance subforum on NNFX Discord (see the FAQs).
Continue to look on the bright side here, and remember we don’t need to sidestep anywhere near the amount of news most people do.
We just have more now. It’s a turd in our bowl of ice cream.
We can’t remove the turd, so we may just have to eat around it for awhile.
Some of you guys were digging right into it, and no surprise you got rekt.
The only constant in this world is change, and we will adjust. And like everything, you don’t just adjust overnight.
But don’t “take a break”.
This won’t solve anything
(But again, I do plan on making another video on this, and watch every one in the comment section argue minutiae with me over which events are important and which ones aren’t. Boy oh boy I can’t wait.)
3 – “I’m Traveling, and I Don’t Know if I’ll Get to the Charts On Time”
You’re good homie. Enjoy your vacation.
— VP