Anyone know best time of day to buy/sell stocks?

S

Saltynuts

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Like, historically, what has been the best time of day to buy, versus best time to sell? There does not seem to be historical data on this, at least right off hand when I google it.

For selling, I think it might be right after market open, based on the known statistical pattern that markets at least in recent years have risen over night.

Then for buying, obviously right before the close is one option to take advantage of the overnight bump on average. But wouldn't buying sometime before this be advantageous? Like, a ton of day traders want to be flat by the end of day. I would guess that most are long, and most don't want to wait TOO late in the day in case they are worried the market might drop and they might not get a good price. So rather than selling right before 3:00 eastern, they try and sell between 1:30 and 2:30 maybe, trying to get a good price in that time frame. So maybe 2:00 or 2:30 would be a good time to add to your positions on average?

I'm not talking about trading based on these assumptions, just if one wants to dollar-cost-average in or out over the long run, what times of day might be optimal.

Thanks for any thoughts!
 
You have to give a lot more info before anyone could give you a reasonable answer. What are you trading? Are you day trading, scaling, swinging trading or whatever?

My rules of thumb are

1. If you are not in overnight do not do the open (first 30 mins.)
2. If you are trading options and you have an open position (closing around 11 is sometimes good) that you want to close before the market closes, you get a better price after 3:30 if the market is going in your directions.

There are no fixed rules. It depends on what you are trading and what you hope to achieve.

Note - There are time of day and day of the week studies. You have to appreciate their limitations.

You do pose a good question. There is no pat answer. However, depending on what you are trading, if you take the time to look at the data, it would be time well spend. Going back a year or two is probably the max. I would assign weights as a function of time. e.g. .1 for 1 year .2 for 11 months....
 
My market timing approach is time tested and was given to me by a great market wizard.

The time to buy is when the market is low.

The time to sell is when the market is high.

You could try the other way too but I haven’t been profitable selling low and buying high. Stick to what works!
 
Handle123 said:
Buy High and sell higher, sometimes buying low turns into downtrend.
More...
YES sir,

That buy low and sell higher stuff will keep you a trader stopped out and frustrated, trying to get cheaper entry.

I like the buy higher concept, keeps me with the trend and high probability of more higher prices.
 
Saltynuts said:
Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Like, historically, what has been the best time of day to buy, versus best time to sell? There does not seem to be historical data on this, at least right off hand when I google it.

For selling, I think it might be right after market open, based on the known statistical pattern that markets at least in recent years have risen over night.

Then for buying, obviously right before the close is one option to take advantage of the overnight bump on average. But wouldn't buying sometime before this be advantageous? Like, a ton of day traders want to be flat by the end of day. I would guess that most are long, and most don't want to wait TOO late in the day in case they are worried the market might drop and they might not get a good price. So rather than selling right before 3:00 eastern, they try and sell between 1:30 and 2:30 maybe, trying to get a good price in that time frame. So maybe 2:00 or 2:30 would be a good time to add to your positions on average?

I'm not talking about trading based on these assumptions, just if one wants to dollar-cost-average in or out over the long run, what times of day might be optimal.

Thanks for any thoughts!
More...
%%
Yes;
waiting until the very last minute never made much sense.
Before lunch /noon can help ;
especially since i usually skip lunch. I seldom sell @ open- it usually will run more , so i may tighten stops.
 
Not all hours of the day are good for trading . So based on your experience you need to figure out your best time to trade. Figure out time when market is most active as active hours vary from country to country. According to me ,the best time to trade for me are the opening one or two hours as they provide great opportunities to traders. In this time markets are volatile and traders can take good advantage of situation. However, newbies should avoid trading in the first 30 minutes. The golden rule is “ buy low and sell high."
 
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