How to handle 24 Hr Futures Trading

Quote from SethArb:

doing it alone :eek:

sometimes I am up for a few hours overnight

then catch a few hours zzz

then back up

then catch a few hours zzz

most of the time ... I do try to get a life :)
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I tried this in Oct/Nov. What a mistake. My "day" trading suffered at the hands of my "night" trading.
 
If:

- you can page your cell phone by sending an email (Sprint, for example)

and

- your charting program/quotes program can send emails for alerts

then

- around the market close (4:00 PM Eastern), set an alert to trigger on your trade entry point, and keep your cell phone near your bed while you sleep. If it wakes you up, stumble to your computer and place your trade.

A BETTER SOLUTION is to use automation software to monitor the market and place the trade for you. I wrote my own program and use the IB API. If you use IB, there are several tools that can do this for you (BracketTrader if I recall, is one).
 
I just pick my best time to trade......7-11 seems to work out for me because we are early birds. The most movement seems to happen then. Then I have all afternoon to do something else.
I carry all my overnight stuff in ETFs only.
 
Quote from bobcathy1:


I carry all my overnight stuff in ETFs only.
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I believe in the market. I believe in me. I use options to hedge the risks in my portfolio. Because it's all about balance.
 
Hey Lobster I have a pot of boiling water waiting for you:D
What kind of lobster are you cold water or warm water?
Cold water is best hot with butter.
Warm water is best cold in a salad.

Butter or Mayo?
:D
 
Quote from bobcathy1:

Hey Lobster I have a pot of boiling water waiting for you:D
What kind of lobster are you cold water or warm water?
Cold water is best hot with butter.
Warm water is best cold in a salad.

Butter or Mayo?
:D
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That's what they all say.
 
intraday around the clock deserves a trading desk of several people. at least five IMO. there are two ways to do the thing if you have a pure systemativ approach.

1. centralise the system generation and send orders to a broker who forwards it after his business orders to the specified next.

2. centralise the whole process and trade in shifts if you want to work orders or at least have human check before the system enters trades. extreme stress for people, therefore you need at least five, otherwise fluctuation within the team will be high.

actually IMO it pays off to consider such a thing once you have seen the positive portfolio effect of these additional markets.


peace
 
Quote from links:

With S&P and Nasdaq emini futures trading around the clock, just wondering how traders cope w/ the long hours. For those of you who swing trade ES & NQ, if a signal is generated at 3AM, how do you handle it?

It seems like the volume starts to pickup around 3AM EST, I guess thats when the European traders start trading.

I have heard stories how some Stock futures traders wake up at 3AM and start monitoring the markets, but that makes for a very long day.
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I avoid entry signals for the ES and NQ in the afterhours.
In my experience you get alot of fake moves, especially if you are using the same indicator during the day. There's not enough volume there at night, so manipulation and big orders can make some large swings that don't necessarily hold up.

I will use the afterhours for exit signals of course... :)

-SubEtha
 
Thanks everyone for your input.

The idea of trading teams monitoring the markets is certainly a good one. Alas for us small individual traders it may not be that feasible, even though I believe the 3AM to 7AM EST window could be profitable.

Trading teams could be a good 'business' idea, gather a group of traders and offer a 24 Hr trading team to other traders, Hedge funds etc for a fee. This might be a growing need, based on my reading of the tea leaves I think Stock traders in droves are getting disenchanted by stocks and looking for a move to the futures markets.

Even if I could automate futures trading, I am not sure I will have enough confidence to 'initiate' new trades especially during the very quite period 10PM - 3AM EST. I guess I will continue to place protective stop loss orders at night. Also SubEtha brings up a good point of throwing wild orders in the overnight mkt to take profits. I have certainly done, and its nice to wake up in the morning and see them filled four points higher than where is the market is. Its what Marty Schwartz in the Market wizards book calls 'waking up with a woody'
:)
 
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