From the perspective of the time zone here in Los Angeles, possibly the best time to begin trading is around 11:00 p.m. (the London session), though sometimes the volatility/liquidity begins picking up as early as 10:00 p.m. or 10:30 p.m.Three factors I want pay particularly close attention to are if there is a best time of day, whether there is a best stop loss setting, and how much time typically transpires before each position closes (if indeed there is a norm).
Usually, I can count on the most movement during the New York session from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. (when things usually begin slowing down) but the action during these hours is a lot more hectic than during the European session. Also, things sometimes begin to pick up as early as 5:00 a.m., or remain active until the closing bell at 1:30 p.m. and every once in a while beyond that.
On the other hand, it's not uncommon for things to be pretty quiet and uneventful from 1:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., which I believe corresponds with the Tokyo session. Every once in a while, things pick up around my dinnertime at 6:00 p.m. (is this when the market opens in Sydney?), but when this happens, I think things usually die down again from around 8:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
The London session is often kind of dead by 2:00 a.m., but the markets often reverse direction during the hours between 3:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. (setting up for the New York session?) so if I fall asleep and my take-profit targets are not hit by these early morning hours, it can often get me in trouble.
As for the best stop loss and take-profit settings, I now have a set of statistically generated indicators that plot these levels for me automatically based on historical data.
And as for how much time typically transpires before my take-profit targets are hit, there is no norm. It might happen in as little as twenty minutes, or take as long as two days.


It truly is a powerful setup.