{"id":1304,"date":"2020-12-18T08:54:53","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T08:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unitedfinances.com\/blog\/?p=1304"},"modified":"2020-12-18T08:54:53","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T08:54:53","slug":"what-beginner-investors-should-expect-over-the-holiday-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unitedfinances.com\/blog\/what-beginner-investors-should-expect-over-the-holiday-season\/","title":{"rendered":"What Beginner Investors Should Expect Over the Holiday Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Markets ebb and flow over the course of the year, and as the seasons shift, consumer and corporate behavior changes. While some investors like to camp on their portfolios for months or years at a time, a different investment strategy entails tracking these patterns and altering investments to harness the different types of growth.<\/span><\/p>\n

The winter holidays, in particular, can be a turbulent time for investing. If this is your first holiday season as an investor, here\u2019s a bit of what you can expect over the course of the next couple months:<\/span><\/p>\n

There Are More Half-days and Full Days off<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Even the stock market takes a break during the holiday season. During the fall and early winter, there are an incredible number of holidays when markets close entirely, meaning that no one is on the trading floor and that any trades you make won\u2019t go through until the next day of operation \u2014 same as weekends. Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year\u2019s Day are full days off, and both the day after Thanksgiving and the day before Christmas are considered partial holidays where markets close early<\/span><\/a>. If you are aggressive in your day trades, it might be wise to mark these important dates on your calendar, so you aren\u2019t surprised when your trades take a day (or two) to process.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trading Tends to Slow Down<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

A large number of people take more vacation days<\/span><\/a> over the holiday season, in the hopes of spending more time with friends and family. As a result, there are fewer people at work almost everywhere \u2014 including on the trading floor. For almost the entire duration of the holiday season, there are fewer people engaging with the market, either in investment firms or at their home computers, which causes the volume of trades to decrease dramatically during this time of year. Low volume results in a decrease in liquidity. This means it could be harder to get out from under certain investments, so you should choose your investment moves wisely during the holidays.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>Stocks Are Less Likely to Mov<\/b><\/span>e<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Another effect of the holiday season is the low volatility of stocks. Volatility reflects how much an asset\u2019s value fluctuates over a certain period; if there is low volatility, it means that asset\u2019s prices tend to be rather steady. While there are places in a portfolio for non-volatile assets, volatility is generally what investors want to see because stock movement \u2014 in one way or the other \u2014 is what helps to generate wealth. In general, you should expect your earning potential to be lower in the holiday season, but you should continue using investment tracking<\/span><\/a> tools to ensure that your earnings are still going up.<\/span><\/p>\n

Markets Move Erratically<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

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The holiday season always falls at the end of the year, which is a strange time for the economy. Some businesses are at their most active, while other businesses are all but shut down. Thus, it isn\u2019t uncommon for markets to be less predictable than usual. Erratic markets are common over the course of the holidays, but a bit of unexpected movement shouldn\u2019t shake up your investing plan. Here are a few mistakes to avoid in erratic holiday markets:<\/span><\/p>\n