Are these long trends in the market the result of optimistic holiday consumer spending expectations? Watch the trading video to see what happened on November 21, 2017 in the E-mini S&P. The January Effect rules confirmed a long (buy) trade was occurring. Remember, a retracement to the 50% level or exceeding past highs can trigger the long trade. The January Effect is not software based – you have to manually look at a daily chart and find the trades with your own eyes. When you switch to a 5-minute chart and use a signal software indicator like the Atlas Line, you can look for complimentary long signals. If these signals match the trend up, then John Paul believes you have a solid indication to buy the market (go long).

Not every trade will be a winner. There’s risk in trading and it’s important to know what to expect. John Paul recommends only trading with money you’ve set aside for high-risk investments (i.e. don’t day trade your rent). One of the great things about DayTradeToWin.com is that they help provide you with a full practice environment that encourages simulated trading. In live sim trading mode with NinjaTrader, you can get a feel for how the methods work without taking on any financial risk. If the results look good to you over a period of time, you may then want to consider trading with a live, funded account. For some traders, this may take a couple weeks. For others, a couple of months. It’s all up to you, how much time you have to practice, and how quickly you want to take it.

Consumer Spending Reports

As a reminder, the market can be rather slow around major holidays (such as Thanksgiving). Expect today (the Friday after Thanksgiving, aka “Black Friday”) to be slow. Perhaps next week, with the result of customer purchasing reports, we will see higher than usual volatility. Black Friday and “Cyber Monday” may be used to initially estimate consumer spending patterns for the rest of the holiday season. Within the last few months, Forbes reported that consumer spending over Black Friday weekend is forecast to grow by 47% year over year. RetailMeNot, possibly the largest coupon website, reported that over 50% of its users intended to make a purchase on Cyber Monday.