As we approach the holiday season, you may ask yourself:

what days should I take off from trading this Christmas and New Years?

You don’t want to miss any good trading days, but, at the same time, you want to be smart about avoiding low-probability days. From an early age in sports and in school, we learn that the harder we work, the better our result.

I remember a saying that I heard, repeatedly, during my tenure as a trainee stockbroker, “hard work brings good luck“.

Put another way, the more effort and the more hours that we work, the greater the probability of our success. However, successful trading is more about trading smart, than it is about the great number of hours devoted to it.

Before I explain when to take the day off during the Holidays, let me issue a caveat. Nearly everyone I meet and, certainly, everyone I coach in my Electronic Trader Mentoring Program is fully committed to trading. My problem is not getting people to take their trading seriously. My problem is getting people to take time off. The following is meant as advice for people who would rather trade than do almost anything else.

Here is how to trade smarter, not harder, this Holiday season. The first 2½-3 weeks of December can be excellent for trading. Every year traders tell me they were surprised at how good their trading was in the first part of December. The markets are liquid and volatile for the first 2½-3 weeks of December and, then, on the Friday a week before Christmas (December 17th this year), this exciting market comes to a screeching halt and remains quiet for the last two weeks of the year.

Therefore, resolve to stop trading for the year on Friday, December 17th and concentrate your attention on having the Merriest of Christmases and the Happiest of New Years.

As for January, traders come back from the holidays on January 3rd ready to start what they hope will be their best year ever. Instead of the predicted great start to the New Year, they very often get “cooked” during the first few trading days of the New Year. This typical slow start for the new year is due to the fact that many “other time-frame traders” take several days to several weeks to restart their trading and re-establish the positions they closed out in December to secure their year-end bonuses.

My advice is to avoid the first full week of the year, altogether. This year, go someplace warm and extend your holiday to January 10th. By doing so, you will have avoided a potentially disappointing start to the year and you will arrive on January 10th prepared to confidently face 2011 fully rested and nicely tanned – ready to begin your best trading year, ever.

There you are; days that you can take off guilt-free knowing that you will be trading smarter because of it.

Wishing you success in your trading.

Jeff coaches traders from around the world to achieve meaningful success in their trading through his Electronic Trader Mentoring Program. and his new Upgrading Your Trading Online Course. You can read Jeff's trading blog at www.ElectronicFuturesTrader.com.