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Trading Forex in the Summer – A How To Guide

By now we have fully entered the summer trading months which are traditionally slower to begin with. When you combine the summer + the lack of ‘flow information‘ shared by bank traders under investigation, you have an environment of lesser volatility, smaller moves, and more false break setups.

With that being said, how can we maximize our time, while still remaining active and consistently profiting? Below is a mini how-to-guide for summer forex currency trading.

In this article, I will share 2 simple tips to help you trade pairs with stable volatility, larger moves, and also remain active during the slower summer months.

Summer Forex Currency Trading Tip #1: Switching Pairs & Instruments
Below is the weekly chart for the EURUSD, the most heavily traded pair on the planet. Do you see that red line under the price action part of the chart? That is the weekly ATR which measures the average trading range (in pips) per week.

eurusd atr weekly chart

The average range of the pair on a week to week basis has been declining for years with it currently being at an all time low. It is the same for most majors, including the USDJPY and GBPUSD. If you are expecting a few hundred pip move on any of the above pairs, you could be sitting on your hand for days which is not the best use of your time. So what can you do about this?

My suggestion is to switch pairs that are more volatile. For example, instead of trading the GBPUSD or the AUDUSD, why not switch to the GBPAUD? It is far more volatile due to the ‘weighting‘ of the pair. If you can learn to spot good moves on the AUDUSD, then it will usually correspond to a directionally opposite move in the GBPAUD.

Take a look at the two charts below to get a better idea of this concept. In the first chart, we are looking at the AUDUSD 1hr intra-day chart. You’ll see the pair selling off heavy in the middle of the chart after a breakout pullback setup around 9330.

audusd 1hr chart breakout pullback setup

The trade happened in the Tokyo session, and took about 1.5 days to drop 135 pips. Now take a look at the chart below of the GBPAUD at that same time and notice the pattern.

gbpaud breakout pullback setup 2ndskiesforex

As you can see. the GBPAUD also make a breakout pullback setup off the role reversal level, yet it runs for +300 pips (a larger move by 2.2x). The size of each stop would have been relatively similar, which would have led to more profit on the second trade, and money in your account. Even an every day 40-50 pip directional move in the AUDUSD can lead to a +120 pip move in the GBPAUD.

Thus start looking at pairs which are naturally more volatile, and will be less affected by the lack of ‘flow information‘ shared by bank traders who are currently less active.

An additional suggestion would be to add other instruments, such as global indices and commodities. The Asian indices such as the Nikkei 225 and Hang Seng tend to have consistent volatility.

Along those lines, recently spent time with an HFT trader at IMC (Chicago). He mentioned how IMC is quite active in trading the Asian indices because of the higher volatility. Gold and WTI Crude Oil will also offer some greater volatility. Same with the German Dax and FTSE 100, so consider expanding your instruments giving you multiple options to trade.

Summer Forex Currency Trading Tip #2: Spend More Time Training
Since you are naturally less active during the summer months, why not use that time to build your trading skill set? Forget the idea of walking away when there is no trades to play golf, watch a movie, or read a book.

You want to be a professional trader who has the freedom of working from home, not having a boss who tells you what to do, what to wear and how much you get paid.

Do you get better at golf by sitting on the beach? Do you get better at playing guitar by reading novels? Do you get better at martial arts by playing video games? No, so why in the world do you think this applies to trading? It doesn’t, hence take advantage of the time available.

For those not familiar with it, Forex Tester 2 is a fantastic live simulation platform. You can take virtually any pair, and load up 13+ years of data on any time frame, then live forward trade it as if the price action was forming in real time.

I did a great video on forex training with Forex Tester 2 which shares several ideas how to accelerate your learning curve. This is especially relevant for those trading daily and 4hr strategies.

Ask yourself how long would it take you to log 500 trades if you only trade the higher time frames? Years perhaps? In less than a week, you can log the same amount of trades in FT2.

Think of it being the equivalent training of the golfer at the driving range, hitting ball after ball. Professional golfers on average will hit 500 balls a day. Do you think that helps their golf game and perfect their swing? Ponder that a moment for those of you only trading 3-5x a month, and how long it will take you to build your skill set.

I’ve had several students log thousands of trades after a few months using FT2. Go figure their trading is improving the most, and showing the greatest profits over the last few months.

NOTE: In the link I shared above to the video on FT2, there is a link where you can get a $50 discount on it.

Along the lines of using FT2 to improve your trading performance, I recently did a private member webinar, where we showed a myfxbook account from one of our students. He is trading over 70% accuracy, and up about +96% on his live trading account, with his average wins well out-sizing their average losses. He profit factor is currently +3.08 and is up +1780 pips for the last 4 months.

Below is a screenshot from their myfxbook page we discussed in the webinar.

2ndskiesforex student profit live myfxbook account using price action

They trained over and over again in FT2 and are a member of my price action course.

While others are being lazy traders, they are building their skill set. If anyone is going to really trade for a living, it will be the ones who put in the hours and properly train.

In Summary
These are just a few tips you can use to help stay consistently profitable trading forex in the summer, while using the time effectively to build your trading skill set.

There are many more tips which I share with my course members, along with more ways to utilize Forex Tester 2, building a successful trading mindset, how to train properly, along with adjusting to the ever evolving markets in real time.

21 thoughts on “Trading Forex in the Summer – A How To Guide”

  1. This is a wonderful post! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us! I hope to read more of your post which is very informative and useful to all the readers.

    1. Hello Randy,
      Am glad you liked the post and found it informative.
      Kind Regards,
      Chris Capre

  2. Hey Chris,
    Great info here. I’m still getting the feel of the pairs and trying to find several I want to focus on. I assume I should hold off on final judgement until after the summer and take a look at some of these cross pairs as well. I’m still in practice mode and absorbing the tremendous amount of information in the course, but I can feel my knowledge increasing and new neural pathways being formed and strengthened every day. Thanks for all the work you do to put all this together. Truly grateful.

  3. Great info, thanks Chris. And a good reminder about FT2. Would love to know how many and which PA methods your successful student is using to get such great results!

    1. Hello Pete,
      They are using a few of the methods. As to which methods, I only share that with course members.
      Kind Regards,
      Chris Capre

  4. Fantastic information , as always ! I’ll definitely look Asian indices .
    Thank you Chris

    1. Hello Andreas,
      Glad you liked it amigo. Yes, definitely check out the Asian indices and other instruments.
      Kind Regards,
      Chris Capre

  5. Hey Chris,
    Excellent tips for the summer season. I’m already starting to swap around the pairs I’m trading. Will get started with Forex Tester 2 asap as well, to take that giant leap in improving the skillset..
    Cu around in the forum mate!

    1. Hello Victor,
      Good to hear you got FT2 and will practice with it. Make sure to take your time on the new instruments – get familiar with them before jumping in. But keep building the skill set.
      Kind Regards,
      Chris Capre

  6. Great article Chris- Thanks! Just purchased FT2 this morning and ready to give it a workout!

    1. Mon Cherie,
      Glad to hear – let me know how your studies and practice with it grow, as I’m guessing you’ll find it helpful.?
      Kind Regards,
      Chris Capre

  7. You keep impressing with the things you share with us, it’s very good information. Many people talk about the slow summer, but no one ever really give any information on how to deal with it.
    After I joined your course and found out about forex tester i can’t believe I spend 8 months testing out a “method” when I could have done it in a weekend, that time could have been spend a hole lot better. Glad you are spreading the word with public also.

    1. Hello Thomas,
      I am always looking to take things to the next level, so hopefully that comes through. Yes, FT2 helps one test out a method in a short period of time to get really familiar with it – far faster than a live market will. So glad you are working with this.
      Kind Regards,
      Chris Capre

  8. Great article as ever Chris and i will certainly go and look at the GBP/AUS as the Euro is driving me mad ! ….And a reminder to get FXT2 instead of getting lazy in that hot sun !

    1. Hola Rob,
      Ha – I’m guessing the Euro is driving a lot of people mad. Keep me apprised of your studies on the GA pair.
      Kind Regards,
      Chris Capre

    1. Thanks Raja, am glad you are a part of the course as well as your tenacity and continual study is starting to reflect in your questions and charts.
      Kind Regards,
      Chris Capre

    1. Hello Jack,
      Glad you liked it amigo. And yes, always time to get on FT2.
      Kind Regards,
      Chris Capre

  9. Thanks Chris for this nice article,
    It is a useful recap of the great webinar we had in our course the other day!

    1. Hola Victoria,
      Wanted to give a recap for members, while sharing a few tidbits with non-members, since the topic is crucial now.
      Kind Regards,
      Chris Capre

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