August is a brilliant month. Not only is it just about the most relaxed, laid-back four weeks of the year for most folks in the nothern hemisphere, it’s also a perfect time to get started trading. Why might that be? Because it’s slooow…..

Now normally slow is bad in trading. At least it is if you’re anything like me, and you want to get in and out of your trades in an hour or so, and then spend the rest of your day doing what you really want to be doing!

But when you’re getting started, slow is good. Trading off slow moving stock charts is like learning to ride a bike with training wheels on – it makes things easier. You get extra time to think about what you’re doing. More time to examine the information on the chart, and to read what it’s telling you. And more time to manage your trade, to squeeze every drop of profit from it. As the market picks up pace in September and October, those skills have become part of you. Trading becomes near-automatic and you’re ready to trade even the fastest movers almost without conscious thought.

Why is the market slow in August? Because many of the big players are on vacation. The investment bankers are living it up on their private yachts, spending their gigantic bonuses (probably!) With those big players out of the picture, volume drops, and things just take longer to happen on the chart, with fewer shares being traded.

Not only that, there’s less news around as companies go slow over the summer vacation period. Less news means less price movement.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a rule, just a (very big) generalization. In any market conditions, at any time of the year, there are always some steller movers – stocks to blow your socks off. But there are fewer of them in August. Which makes it perfect training territory for new traders.

So if you’re thinking of dipping your toe into the stock market waters, the next couple of weeks are a really good time to have go.