The Forex market is one of the most active financial markets in the world because of its round-the-clock trading hours.
When you’re on a strong winning streak(or want to break a losing streak), you may wonder: “can you trade Forex on the weekends?”
The short answer is you can’t trade Forex on the weekends because the markets are closed and brokers don’t accept any orders during this time. After New York close on Friday, brokers will not accept any new orders until Asian open the following Monday.
Why does price gap over the weekend?
When you pull up the charts on a Monday, you may see that price has gapped from its Friday close to its Monday open, meaning the open and close are not in the same position. Instead, price opens significantly higher or lower than the last close.
Gaps are quite common and the reason they happen is simple. Even though retail traders don’t have access to quotes over the weekend, it’s likely that the big banks and institutions still do some transactions on Saturday and Sunday.
These quotes don’t get sent to the brokers and liquidity providers, so the last bit of data they have is still from Friday New York close.
If there was significant price movement over the weekend, it’s only visible to us once the brokers receive the data on Monday Asian open, which is why you see a gap.
So even though banks and institutions sometimes move money in the Forex market over the weekend, us retail traders can’t.
Should you hold trades over the weekend?
Whether you should hold trades over the weekend or not depends on your trading strategy. If you’re holding for huge swings of hundreds of pips, holding over the weekend may be a regular thing for you. A 30-40 pip gap here or there won’t do much to deter your trading.
However, if you’re catching smaller moves, then it’s safer to close out your trade in profit before the markets close on Friday and then just look for new opportunities on Monday.
Additionally, if you trade for a prop firm, many firms have rules that don’t allow you to hold trades over the weekend, mainly because of the uncertainty and volatility that occurs during some days.
To summarize, unless you’re a swing trader that holds for many days or weeks, it’s a bad idea to hold over the weekend.
What else to do over the weekend
At this point, you may wonder “Well, what should I do over the weekend? I need to get me some trades!”
If you must open the charts, the weekend is a good time to go over your trades for the week and review them.
Analyze your winners and losers to see what you could have done better.
Your losers will tell you what you could have avoided, and your winners will show you where you could have held the trade for longer.
You can also use a simulator like Soft4FX to hone in your trading skills. A simulator can give you a week’s practice in about 1-2 hours, and if you do it seriously and with diligence, it’s a great way to stay sharp.
Trading crypto with certain brokers
Since the crypto markets move 24/7/365, many brokers who offer crypto pairs let you trade them over the weekend.
However, one thing to be mindful of is that there is not as much volume in the market over the weekend as there is during the week.
As such, market structure may not be quite as reliable as it is in normal trading hours.
Still, if you must trade, try trading crypto with very small lots to get some practice before you try and risk more money.
Why you should take a break
Trading Forex can be very mentally draining, and if you’re not careful, the slope towards overtrading and blowing your account is very slippery.
Contrary to intuition, taking a break from Forex at times actually helps grow your account because it prevents you from taking stupid trades.
The less time you’re in the market, the less chances there are for you to lose a trade. That’s the reality!
Taking a break helps refresh your mind and when you come back to the charts, you’ll come back with a fresh perspective and will be able to see what the charts are actually telling you rather than what you want to see.
More:
Are forex markets open on Thanksgiving?
Forex trading vs crypto trading
Conclusion
You can’t trade Forex on the weekends because your broker won’t allow it, and you shouldn’t trade anything on the weekend, period. It’s healthy to take a break and you’ll appreciate the mental freedom!