Lesson Learned: Not respecting the Lunar New Year lull in APAC
Thought I was clever going long on a few select $SET and $HSItargets right before the Lunar New Year a couple of years back, expecting a small pre-holiday dip to reverse quickly into the usual post-holiday optimism. Big mistake. Liquidity just evaporated, and my stops, while placed, ended up getting tested on thin volume with far more slippage than I'd anticipated. It wasn't a catastrophic loss, but it chopped away a decent chunk of capital unnecessarily. It reinforced the idea that sometimes the best trade is no trade, especially when the market is effectively taking a holiday. The pattern recognition was there, the seasonal aspect, but I tried to push it. Ended up having to re-evaluate my sizing and entry criteria for holiday periods, particularly in regions where the trading calendar deviates significantly from the typical Western schedule. Won't make that mistake again, at least not with the same conviction.