There’s a common misconception that you cannot trade over the weekend because most financial markets are closed. The truth is, there are still markets that you can trade on Saturdays and Sundays.
With the interest in trading growing exponentially by the minute due to easier access to financial markets, more traders are looking for ways to continue trading every day, even on weekends. To meet this demand, more brokers now offer weekend trading.
Why trade on the weekend
For seasoned traders, trading on the weekend provides more time to refine their trading strategies, allowing them to take advantage of more market movements. If you’re a beginner and want to find out if it’s right for you, here are the 3 reasons to consider.
1. More time to trade
Weekends give you more trading time and more opportunities to take advantage of price movements. In contrast to weekdays, you have fewer distractions, allowing you to think through your trades and limit the risk of making hasty decisions just because you want to seize trading opportunities.
2. More flexibility to trade at your convenience
For some, trading on weekdays is nearly impossible. With busy schedules and commitments throughout the week, the weekend is the best option as it offers flexibility — you enjoy the freedom to choose the hours that best fit your schedule.
3. Keep your trades open
Trades you make during the week will still be able to run through the weekend even if the market is closed. Your trading conditions, such as stop loss and take profit, will remain in place but will not be triggered for the markets that are closed. If you need to close a trade manually, you can do so whenever you want. But, if you’re confident about your trades, maintaining your position over the weekend can provide you with additional potential gains.
How the weekend can help you improve your trading
The weekends offer the perfect time to go over how your trades performed. You have the leeway to review your trading journal, evaluate market conditions with more focus, and examine the changes you need to implement in your strategies if they are not working in your favour.
Financial markets behave differently throughout the week, so if you’d like to perform an in-depth technical or fundamental analysis for your trades, the weekend provides you the leniency to do so.
It’s also a good time to evaluate whether you’ve let your emotions influence your trading decisions. Have you held on to your trades too long? Did you overestimate your trading ability? If so, the weekends give you the chance to contemplate how you’ve been trading and make necessary adjustments.
Markets to trade during the weekend
There are two markets that never sleep which you can trade on Deriv — synthetic indices and cryptocurrencies.
Synthetic indices
Synthetic indices are unique indices that mimic real-world markets but are not affected by global events or market and liquidity risks. They are backed by a cryptographically secure random number generator and offer different levels of volatility depending on the trading conditions you prefer. You can choose from Volatility indices, Crash/Boom, Jump indices, Step indices, to Range break indices.
You can trade synthetic indices on Deriv MT5 and Deriv X (with CFDs), DTrader (with options and multipliers for as low as 0.35 USD), DBot (with options) and Deriv GO (with multipliers).
Cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that are decentralised, meaning they are neither issued nor backed by an authority such as a central bank or government. Due to the high volatility of cryptocurrency markets, they are favoured by traders who like more risk in their trades.
On Deriv, you can trade the world’s most popular cryptocurrencies, with over 17 crypto pairs available. You can trade them on Deriv MT5 and Deriv X (with CFDs), Deriv GO (with multipliers), and DTrader (with multipliers).
If you are not familiar with these markets, you can practice your trading skills first. Start with a free demo account, which comes pre-loaded with 10,000 USD of virtual money that you can use and top up when it runs out. Once you feel comfortable with your trading, you can easily switch to a real account.
Find out more about how synthetic indices and cryptocurrencies work with our “An introduction to synthetic indices trading” and “What is cryptocurrency?” blogs.
Disclaimer:
Options trading and some indices, trading conditions, and platforms are unavailable to clients residing within the EU.
The Deriv X and Deriv GO platforms are not available for clients residing within the EU.