The nervous wait before 13:30

[Fairman]

The nervous wait before 13:30

The half hour before a major release stretches. The screen is calm. The body is tense. Adrenaline builds.

Many traders enter positions in this window out of restlessness. They find a reason: a pullback, a level, a feeling. The release arrives and the position is caught by a spike.

Anticipation does something to decision quality. The brain wants resolution. Waiting feels uncomfortable, and action relieves the discomfort.

A simple method is to define the pre-release period as off-limits, and to step away from the screen. A walk, a glass of water, a different task.

Those who like to trade news can prepare the plan beforehand, write it down, and stick to it. The decision made in a calm moment beats the one made under tension.

A useful reframing is that waiting is itself a position: flat, with full capital and full options. Nothing is being missed while the release is pending. The best entries after a release tend to come after the first few minutes, and those entries are available only to someone who did not burn energy and capital in the half hour before.

What does the trade log show about positions opened in the thirty minutes before major releases?