August is finally over, and I am not sad about it. Low volume turned the market into a fakeout machine. Setups that would have worked cleanly any other month kept reversing at the wrong moment. If you struggled in August, it was not necessarily your read that was off. The conditions were genuinely difficult.
The video above covers my full watchlist and what I expect heading into September. Here is the written version of the key themes.
Why August was so hard to trade
August has a well-known seasonal pattern. Institutions step away. Volume dries up. Without the big players to absorb order flow and push trends, price moves on thin air.
That creates two problems:
- Fakeouts multiply. A breakout that would hold in October gets reversed in August because there is not enough volume behind it.
- Solid setups fail at a higher rate. Your read can be right and the trade still loses. That is demoralizing, and it tempts traders to overtrade to make up for it.
The worst thing you can do in a low-volume environment is increase your frequency. The right move is to shrink your size, demand better setups, and accept that some weeks the market is not handing out clean trades.
What September should bring
September historically brings institutional volume back. Desks that went quiet in August reopen with fresh capital and new mandates. More volume means trends carry further and fakeouts become less common.
That does not make September easy. It is actually one of the historically weakest months of the year for stocks. More volume cuts both ways. Big players returning means big moves, and those moves do not always go up.
What it does mean is that setups should behave more predictably. A breakout backed by real volume has more follow-through. A breakdown has more conviction behind it. Reading the tape gets cleaner.
How I approach the watchlist heading into the new month
Every Sunday I build my watchlist before the week begins. The process does not change month to month, but the filter tightens after a stretch like August.
Heading into September, I am looking for:
- Higher-volume names. Stocks with consistent daily volume hold trends better when institutions are active.
- Cleaner chart structures. After a choppy month, I want setups that are obvious, not setups I have to talk myself into.
- Defined risk entries. Every trade needs a clear line where I am wrong. In a market transitioning from low to higher volume, gaps happen. Know your worst case before you put the trade on.
If you want to see exactly which names made the cut, you can grab my free stock watchlist every Sunday before the week opens.
Watch the full breakdown
The video walks through the actual charts, the setups I flagged for the week of August 31, and my read on how September sets up sector by sector.
Watch “Weekly Watchlist - 8/31 - What Traders Should Expect From the Market in September” on YouTube, and subscribe to the channel so you catch the next watchlist the day it drops.
Nothing here is financial advice. Markets carry real risk of loss. Always define your risk before entering a trade and never risk capital you cannot afford to lose.
