[pieman]

Hello all,
I have been wondering for a while now, what is the most favorable time of day to trade and why.
Having been a purchaser of many a system, a lot of them encourage people to trade on in the morning or not over lunch, or not on Friday afternoons or not on Fridays at all,
I was hoping to get some expressions of interest of the favorable times to trade.
I assume in the morning, before lunch, volatility can be quiet high, people are positioning themselves for market announcements, holding back, or trying to "guess what the news will do to a market". They could also just stay out of the market before and after and announcement, therefore limiting there possible trading time.
Also many systems don't trade over lunch (the so called dead hour).
Not trading in the last 30 minutes has also been heard of.
Could it be, that in the USA , people would like to just work in the morning, therefore be done trading by lunch, to spend the day by the beach or on their yachts etc etc lol.
Surely if you have a system that needs you to look at a PC all day long cant be a good system , or that it maybe, but its not a good life. Surely people get into day trading, to escape the pressure of going to work and to escape the work feeling etc.
If you could make a consistent 2 points per day per e mini contract, surely by multiply your contracts , it would be better to get in then out and enjoy your rest of your day.
I reside in Australia, the US markets currently open at 130 am to 8am, not a time i would consider favorable, at all, its hard on family and personal life (no matter how much money you make)
I would prefer to trade just the final 2 hours each day ie 6am to 8am, that way i have a definite finish point and not hanging around watching all day.
I also have the rest of the day to enjoy,(to spend on my yacht lol).
Would i be right to assume that afternoons, while still volatile, have more " consistency" to trends, as news is rare and market surprises are limited
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated
regards
Anthony
Sydney, Australia

[Soultrader]

To answer your question, in my case throughout the entire day. I have strategies that focus only on specific time zones. Let me explain.

I have a opening range strategy which I play only in the morning for a specific market. Then I have an evening session only strategy for the same market.

I also have a strategy for a different market throughout the morning and afternoon session. So different strategies apply to different time zones for different instruments.

The only time I do not establish a position is into the close from around 2:50pm to 3:10pm (close).

The above example strategies are based on technical patterns incorporating volume, open-close spread, and bear/bull control based off opening range. They consist of retracements, momentum, and reversals. This can come regardless of news. The above strategies are for the Japanese markets and different from the US because we have a lunch hour break when the markets close. As a result liquidity is present all throughout the session. (most of the time)

[Bearbull]

Have a look at European Bourses, Dax and Eurostoxx, plenty of liquidity and price movement. 1pt on Dax 25Euro, and on Eurostoxx it is 10Euros. Ideal for trading prior to US open.

[BlowFish]

liquidity and volatility are important. Most of these ideas like 'don't trade NY lunch' or 'don't trade Friday pm', are because those tend to be less liquid and have less range. In current conditions lunch times seem fine to me. You don't have to do hugely complex analysis just throw up an hourly chart (doesn't have to be hourly that's just an example) and notice when the long high volume bars tend to occur. Look at the shorter bars do they look long enough to provide trading opportunities for you?

As BB says take a look at Europe & maybe Asia too.