John Netto: Monday Is My Favourite Day
For many traders, the beginning of a new trading week brings uncertainty. Markets reopen after the weekend with fresh economic developments, geopolitical events, and unexpected news that can trigger sharp price movements. Some traders approach Mondays cautiously, preferring to wait until the week settles before making important decisions. John Netto sees things differently. For him, Monday represents a fresh start filled with opportunity. His optimism, however, is not based on hope or excitement. It is rooted in preparation, discipline, and a deep understanding of how markets respond to information.
Netto's trading career demonstrates that consistent success does not come from predicting every market movement correctly. Instead, it comes from developing a structured decision-making process that combines market analysis, emotional awareness, and disciplined execution. His long-term performance reflects this balanced approach. Rather than relying on a single trading philosophy, Netto integrates several complementary methods into one coherent system.
One of the most interesting aspects of Netto's interview is his perspective on **emotions**. Most experienced traders advise eliminating emotions from trading because fear and greed often lead to poor decisions. Netto agrees that uncontrolled emotions are dangerous, but he introduces a more nuanced viewpoint. Instead of trying to suppress emotions completely, he believes traders should learn to observe them because emotions themselves often provide valuable information.
He explains that emotional extremes frequently signal potential mistakes. If excitement suddenly becomes overwhelming after a trade moves strongly in his favour, he treats that excitement as a warning rather than encouragement. Instead of increasing his position during moments of euphoria, he often does the opposite by reducing or even closing the trade.
This approach reflects an important psychological principle. Human emotions naturally become strongest near important market turning points. Greed often peaks after prices have already risen significantly, while fear usually reaches its highest level after substantial declines. By recognising these emotional patterns within himself, Netto prevents them from influencing his decisions.
In many ways, his emotions become indicators rather than decision-makers.
Another defining characteristic of Netto's trading style is his ability to combine **fundamental analysis** with **technical analysis**. Many traders strongly favour one method while dismissing the other. Netto believes both approaches become far more powerful when used together.
His process begins with understanding the broader market environment. He first develops a fundamental opinion regarding whether market conditions favour higher or lower prices. This assessment may include economic trends, interest rates, government policies, corporate developments, or other macroeconomic factors.
Once this broader direction becomes clear, he turns to technical analysis.
Charts help him identify precise entry and exit points that align with his fundamental outlook. Support and resistance levels, price reactions, and technical patterns allow him to enter trades with greater precision rather than relying solely on broad economic opinions.
This layered approach offers an important advantage.
Fundamental analysis answers the question of **what** direction the market is likely to move.
Technical analysis helps determine **when** to enter.
By combining both perspectives, Netto increases the probability that his trades begin at favourable prices while remaining aligned with larger market forces.
Another important component of his methodology involves **event trading**.
Financial markets constantly respond to scheduled announcements such as central bank decisions, employment reports, inflation data, and corporate earnings. Unexpected geopolitical developments can also trigger dramatic price movements.
Netto specialises in understanding not only the news itself but also how surprising that news is relative to market expectations.
This distinction is crucial.
Markets often react less to the absolute quality of economic data than to whether the information differs from what investors were already expecting. Excellent economic news may produce little market movement if everyone anticipated strong results. Conversely, slightly disappointing news can trigger major declines if expectations were excessively optimistic.
Netto therefore focuses on identifying genuine surprises.
Only when an event significantly differs from prevailing expectations does he consider entering a trade.
Execution speed becomes particularly important during these situations because markets often react within seconds.
To solve this challenge, Netto developed sophisticated software capable of reading news releases immediately after publication. The program rapidly interprets the information, determines its likely market implications, and executes trades almost instantly whenever predefined conditions are satisfied.
Although most individual traders may not possess similar technology, the underlying principle remains highly valuable.
Preparation should always occur **before** important events.
Netto carefully studies every possible outcome in advance. He considers how markets are likely to respond under different scenarios and develops trading plans accordingly.
Because these decisions are made before emotions become involved, he avoids reacting impulsively during periods of heightened volatility.
This level of preparation reflects another recurring theme throughout *Unknown Market Wizards*—professional traders rarely improvise. They spend far more time preparing than actually executing trades.
Netto also shares one of the most painful experiences of his career, offering an important lesson about emotional discipline.
Early in his trading journey, he suffered a significant loss in a short position on the S&P 500. Importantly, the original trade itself was not necessarily a mistake. It followed his trading methodology, but the market simply moved against him.
Unfortunately, what happened next proved far more damaging.
Driven by frustration and a desire to recover his losses quickly, Netto repeatedly re-entered the same market several more times that day. None of these additional trades satisfied his usual criteria.
They were not based on analysis.
They were based on emotion.
By the end of the session, he had transformed a manageable loss into the equivalent of almost an entire year's profits.
This experience illustrates one of the greatest dangers facing every trader—**revenge trading**.
After experiencing losses, many people feel an overwhelming urge to recover their money immediately. Unfortunately, this emotional urgency often causes traders to abandon their carefully designed systems in favour of impulsive decisions.
Netto learned that accepting losses with discipline is far easier than recovering from emotionally driven mistakes.
Another fascinating concept introduced during his interview concerns **counterintuitive market reactions**.
Most investors assume markets should move in the direction suggested by major news events.
Netto points out that reality often differs.
Sometimes markets react in exactly the opposite direction from what appears logical.
He describes historical examples where overwhelmingly bearish news initially pushed prices lower before markets suddenly reversed and began strong long-term rallies.
One example occurred before the Second Gulf War. Political uncertainty appeared highly negative for financial markets, and prices initially declined following the announcement.
However, instead of continuing downward, markets quickly reversed and finished the session strongly higher.
This unexpected resilience signalled that selling pressure had already been exhausted.
Rather than focusing solely on the news itself, Netto focused on **how the market responded** to that news.
The reaction proved more informative than the event.
He observed a similar phenomenon during the 2016 United States presidential election.
Many investors expected markets to decline sharply if Donald Trump unexpectedly won the election.
Initially, that prediction appeared correct as stock futures fell immediately after election results became clear.
However, prices quickly recovered and then launched into a prolonged upward trend.
Again, the important lesson was not predicting the political outcome.
It was recognising that markets refused to behave according to prevailing expectations.
These experiences taught Netto that price behaviour often reveals more than headlines.
Markets constantly process enormous amounts of information. When prices respond unexpectedly, traders should investigate why rather than simply assuming the original analysis remains correct.
This willingness to let price action challenge preconceived beliefs reflects intellectual flexibility—a quality shared by many successful traders.
Throughout the interview, Netto repeatedly returns to one central principle: **process over outcome**.
Every trade should follow a clearly defined methodology.
Sometimes excellent trades lose money because uncertainty remains unavoidable.
Sometimes poor trades accidentally produce profits.
Over time, however, disciplined execution consistently outperforms emotional decision-making.
He reminds traders that making money is important, but **avoiding unnecessary losses** is equally valuable.
Large losses rarely occur because of one bad market prediction.
They usually develop after traders abandon their process and begin making emotional decisions.
Risk taken according to a structured plan contributes to long-term success.
Risk taken impulsively almost always leads to regret.
Netto also demonstrates remarkable humility.
Despite his experience and success, he never assumes complete certainty.
Every trade remains subject to market uncertainty.
Preparation, analysis, and discipline improve probabilities, but they never eliminate risk entirely.
This realistic perspective helps him remain flexible whenever markets behave unexpectedly.
Ultimately, John Netto's trading philosophy combines technical skill with psychological awareness.
He understands markets, but perhaps more importantly, he understands human behaviour—including his own.
Rather than attempting to eliminate emotions completely, he observes them carefully, allowing them to serve as warning signals whenever excitement or frustration begins influencing his judgment.
This level of self-awareness strengthens every aspect of his decision-making.
The central message of **John Netto: Monday Is My Favourite Day** is that consistent trading success depends on combining careful preparation with emotional discipline. By integrating fundamental and technical analysis, preparing thoroughly for important market events, recognising genuine surprises rather than expected news, learning from emotional mistakes, respecting market reactions over personal opinions, observing emotions instead of obeying them, and following a disciplined trading process regardless of recent outcomes, traders can dramatically improve both their consistency and confidence. Markets constantly present uncertainty, but those who prepare thoroughly, remain flexible, and execute their process with discipline place themselves in the strongest possible position to succeed over the long term.