The Forex market has a reputation for being a 24/5 market, so you may be wondering if it’s open on Thanksgiving.
After all, if you want to go out and buy a really big turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, you may be tempted to place a few trades to finance this year’s Thanksgiving!
While the Forex markets are open on Thanksgiving, US banks are closed, so you may experience much lower volatility and volume during the New York session. The London session may also be slow, though Thanksgiving day in the USA is not a bank holiday in the UK and Europe.
Should you trade Forex on Thanksgiving?
If you trade the London or Asian session, you may find that there is actually decent volume. After all, it’s business as normal in Europe and Asia.
Trading the New York session may prove a little harder because of the decreased volume. When there’s less volume, price tends to be all over the place.
As you can see from the chart below, there was actually decent volume during the Asian and London sessions on the EUR/USD during Thanksgiving 2021, and the volume tapered off during the New York session.
It’s healthy to take a break from trading
Trading can be addictive and almost lead to gambling tendencies. Many traders(myself included) have blown trading accounts trying to trade setups that were not there and when there was little to no volume in the market.
Don’t fall victim to this trap – the key to success in the Forex market is to maintain self-control and discipline.
It’s good to take a break every now and then, so next Thanksgiving, even if the market is not closed and your broker is accepting orders, consider taking a break and giving yourself some time to enjoy doing other things.
What else you can do for your Forex trading on Thanksgiving
If the call of the charts is too strong, there are other things you can do for your trading during Thanksgiving and other bank holidays.
Practice on a simulator
Simulators offer a really unique way to practice your Forex trading since you can cram an entire week or longer of trading into a few hours.
Just remember to practice trading during the hours on the chart that you would normally trade. Otherwise, the sim experience will not be realistic, since the sim may show you a trade at 3 AM, a time that you may not ever trade in real life.
Review your past trades
A holiday is also a good time to review your past trades and study which ones performed well/which ones did not do quite as well.
This exercise will help you identify setups that consistently worked as well as dicey setups that did not work.
The more you review your past trades and document them, the better you will be at capitalizing on your strengths and improving your weaknesses.
Related:
How many trading days in a year?
Can you trade Forex on the weekend?
Conclusion
The Forex market is always open with a few rare exceptions, and you can find most brokers available to take orders on Thanksgiving. However, some instruments like US indices will not be tradeable.
Remember to trade during times of volume and volatility, otherwise you may find yourself stuck in a trade for longer than you wanted!