[Bam-Bam]

Does anyone trade ES or YM in the pre-market?

I recently transitioned back into my day job for a couple of months--received an offer I couldn't refuse. I've been watching pre-market activity on these instruments over the past couple of weeks to try trading before work hours.

Liquidity on YM is pretty dismal, but still enough transitions if you're not trading in size.

ES volume seems to pick up anywhere from 2:00am to 5:00am EST depending on the day's events. Order flow looks pretty good. You can really see big players consolidating before block transactions go through. And when the flow starts running, it's like a cascade. Activity spikes around the half hours (x:00 and x:30), with runups into the hour beginning at ~ x:50.

I've mainly been trading ES between 7:00 and 8:00am EST over the past couple of weeks. That means 6:00am to 7:00am is analysis time. As a pattern trader, there are plenty of opportunities. However, there are an awful lot of whipsaws for stop hunting. Price may move in the expected direction to trigger some entries then shoot opposite to trigger panic exits before returning to original (expected) direction.

See ya before the sun rises.

Coffee's brewing,

Bam-Bam