Successful trading is all about having a vision for what’s going on. A lot of newspapers (and frankly, most mainstream financial news) will try to get your attention with a new IPO or some big merger or acquisition that happened.
In other words, they normally tell you about the shiniest new toy on the shelf…
Once in a blue moon, those stories will point to something worthwhile. Most of the time, it’s just a distraction. Problem is, if you focus all of your attention on the stories that the news outlets are feeding you, you’ll lose sight of what’s really happening.
On the other hand, unless you have a regular system for seeing what’s going on, it’s easy to get lost out there. The easier your plan is to follow, the more predictable your success becomes.
The Global Markets Never Stop
Today, I’m going to teach you one of the most important lessons about trading: It’s that the global markets never really stop.
Take a careful look at this chart. It’s a summary of each trading day…
How many traders out there realized that each trading day actually begins at 5 o’clock in the afternoon the day before?
This is actually when the markets are opening in Asia – when most Americans are going home from work. Their trading day ends in the middle of the night – at 3:30 a.m. ET – right when the markets are opening up in Europe. Then as Europe is winding down – 8:30 a.m. ET – is when premarket. trading is getting started in the U.S.
This means that, by the time U.S. markets actually open, the third phase of the global trading day is underway.
Another way of thinking about it is that there are three days within every single trading day. And the times that markets and close within each of these days are what we call trend changes.
How Trend Changes Point to Opportunity
If you’re ever wondering why you’re making money in the morning and losing money in the evening, or why you’re making money in the evening and losing money in the morning, it’s because of a simple fact.
It’s because of these trend changes that happen all throughout the day, based on when other global markets are opening and closing. It may seem like things happen mysteriously overnight or before markets even open, but as I always like to say: Where is the sun?
In many cases, you may be able to better understand based on what happened where the sun was when you made (or lost) money.
The better you get at reading the global markets and understanding these trend changes throughout the day, the more you notice the patterns that repeat themselves. This is a good way to increase our odds of winning.
Not unlike the seven sisters, having a good read on the markets in Asia and Europe – and understanding how activity in those places create trend changes – gives you a leg up when you need to make steel in the gut decisions.
Reminder to TBUZ subscribers (and those who caught my Sunday strategy meeting from last week): the pivot number for this week is 3522.
My subscribers know what this means. If you want to learn more about pivot numbers and join us on the next strategy call this Sunday, check out this link here.
I’ll be sending you some homework over the weekend. Keep your eyes peeled for that.
Catch you on the flip side,
Tom