New traders — especially ones daydreaming about Lambos and early retirement — tend to assume the market is always serving up juicy price action and fat profit opportunities on a silver platter.
Spoiler alert: it’s not.
Markets go through slow, sleepy periods where price barely twitches and your chart looks less like a trading opportunity and more like a flatline.
If you’re thinking about pushing through those dead market stretches anyway, pump the brakes and consider these two very good reasons why you might want to sit this one out.
You may use a trading system that’s not designed for tight ranges
Using a trend-catching strategy in a range-bound market is like pushing a square peg into a round hole. It just won’t fit, and you’ll likely wind up hurting yourself if you force it.
While taking advantage of different market opportunities is a huge part of becoming a consistently profitable trader, it’s equally important to have a clear plan of action before taking a setup.
This means setting entry and exit levels based on your strategy rules, as well as identifying beforehand the conditions that could invalidate your trade idea.
Not something that can be instantly done if you’re trading in an unfamiliar market environment, right?
You may end up forcing your trades
If you’re used to volatile prices and are expecting the same returns in a low-volatility environment, you’ll likely force your trades in two ways.
First, because you feel you “have to trade” or “make money today,” you may be pressured to take low-conviction setups that you wouldn’t have given a second look in a more volatile setting.
As Black Panther once said, we don’t do that here.
Not having a position IS a position. Do not undo months of protecting your capital by exposing it to mediocre setups that don’t maximize your edge.
Maybe you’d think, “I can’t make 20 pips using one lot in this market, but I can try to make 2 pips using ten lots!”
In this scenario, you’re forcing trades AND doing it with increased risks with the use of additional lots. Yikes!
Your inflated position size could make a considerable dent in your account if price unexpectedly moves against your trade.
So, does this mean that you should stay away from the dead markets and just focus on having a hot girl/hot boy s̶u̶m̶m̶e̶r spring?
Not at all! In fact, there’s one good reason why you should still stick around…
Consistent profitability requires attendance
Well, at least in the beginning. You have to start somewhere, right?
You can’t learn to navigate low-volatility markets from the sidelines — you have to be in the trenches, watching how price behaves (or doesn’t behave) and asking yourself the right questions:
- What catalysts are traders currently pricing in?
- Are the correlations I usually rely on still holding up?
- Is my go-to indicator still respected on this timeframe?
- What does “normal” volatility even look like for this asset right now?
These aren’t questions you can answer from a highlight reel of your best trades. They require actual screen time in the conditions you’re trying to understand.
Remember that your job as a trader isn’t to take a trade every single day. It’s to take the right trades — the ones that give you the best odds and put your edge to work. Managing risk isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the whole game.
Dead markets won’t last forever. The traders who come out ahead are the ones who use the quiet time to learn, not the ones who blow up their accounts trying to manufacture action that isn’t there.
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