I call bs
You can trade for 16-20 hours a day. I've done it and it wears on you. Although I'm no longer glued to the desktop i still trade/monitor positions 15-17 hours from Sunday 5 pm to Friday at 3pm. Money never sleeps
how to prepare for night shift trading?
- Thread starter emk662
- Start date
You can trade for 16-20 hours a day. I've done it and it wears on you. Although I'm no longer glued to the desktop i still trade/monitor positions 15-17 hours from Sunday 5 pm to Friday at 3pm. Money never sleeps
Nobody said you can't, but why should you? With this volatility there is plenty of money to be made in a few hours, one doesn't even need all 6.5 RTH. This is the 21st century>>>automatization.
Watching the screen all day is so 20th century....
By the way you can't call BS on an opinion.
Back in the 1990's being able to trade the CBOT Project A evening screen session and then Globex overnight screen session was a very big factor for me being able to transition from being a full time Nuclear Engineer in Chicago to a full time futures trader in Chicago. Sure there was a very muted trading range - but for a spreader who could show size queue position was paramount and I could usually get one or two really good fills during a session. I almost always used a specialty spread broker in the 2, 5, and 10 Year Note Pits to work orders during the day pit session when I was trading overnights. They would call me with the fills and leave a message. If I didn't get a call then I knew I had to work that position the next overnight trading session.
And I had young kids.
When I traded commercial energy we worked 12 hour shifts and every other month that meant overnights.
You do what you have to do to get it done. I slept with ear plugs in and a blindfold. If the maid woke me up it had damn well better be for a BJ. Oftentimes I would play a round of golf before I went to bed - my handicap got pretty low back then and the courses were typically pretty open early on a weekday even in the Chicago area. When I woke up typically my wife was just getting home from work with the kids being picked up from daycare. Dinner was my breakfast. It was fun in a nostalgic sense to pop in a Barnie DVD on the TV for the kids and sneak off to the bedroom for a quickie before I took off for the evening shift.
When I prop traded I also had TT at home on a workstation and also CQG charting at home - so I traded spreads 22 hours per day when every other prop trader at the firm traded the day session and went home. And every once in a while I would get hung on the AutoSpreader yes.
I still to this day use an FCM's 24 hour execution desk for GTC limit orders. They will call me with the fill and I am happy to pay them the $1 per car for the effort. And let me tell you I have gotten some fantastic fills during "off hour" super thin market opens and closes and the rare blip.
And I had young kids.
When I traded commercial energy we worked 12 hour shifts and every other month that meant overnights.
You do what you have to do to get it done. I slept with ear plugs in and a blindfold. If the maid woke me up it had damn well better be for a BJ. Oftentimes I would play a round of golf before I went to bed - my handicap got pretty low back then and the courses were typically pretty open early on a weekday even in the Chicago area. When I woke up typically my wife was just getting home from work with the kids being picked up from daycare. Dinner was my breakfast. It was fun in a nostalgic sense to pop in a Barnie DVD on the TV for the kids and sneak off to the bedroom for a quickie before I took off for the evening shift.
When I prop traded I also had TT at home on a workstation and also CQG charting at home - so I traded spreads 22 hours per day when every other prop trader at the firm traded the day session and went home. And every once in a while I would get hung on the AutoSpreader yes.
I still to this day use an FCM's 24 hour execution desk for GTC limit orders. They will call me with the fill and I am happy to pay them the $1 per car for the effort. And let me tell you I have gotten some fantastic fills during "off hour" super thin market opens and closes and the rare blip.
Last edited:
