Only trade in the mornings?

B

bmwhendrix

It seems that looking back over my trading that if I had only traded in the mornings that I would have done about as well as trading all day.

It seems that those days when the market is like an ATM all day, are offset by the days I make money in the morning and give it back during a low volume afternoon.

I know this is one of those recurring threads, but your thoughts are appreciated.

BMW
 
Quote from bmwhendrix:
----only traded in the mornings....
----market is like an ATM....
----give it back during a low volume afternoon.
----thoughts are appreciated.
More...
1) Confirmation of the obvious......do what "works", refrain from doing doesn't. :cool:
2) If your profitability is "better" early in the session and then declines later in the morning and early afternoon, your method has some type of volatility sensitivity. You ought to be making some money later in the session towards the close. :)
3) You could attempt to trade the middle of the session with a different method or just do something else more productive and stay away from the screen. :D
 
Quote from bmwhendrix:

It seems that looking back over my trading that if I had only traded in the mornings that I would have done about as well as trading all day.

It seems that those days when the market is like an ATM all day, are offset by the days I make money in the morning and give it back during a low volume afternoon.

I know this is one of those recurring threads, but your thoughts are appreciated.

BMW
More...

Doing an analysis of one's past trades to identify key characteristics is a smart way to approach ones' trading - its like following scientific method. Many of my methods work well within 1 hr from open. So, my experience jibes with you. Good luck.
 
Hour by hour (and/or other consistent time segments) including day of week analysis of YOUR trading is absolutely a smart thing. Knowing YOUR internal (subconscious) "edges" or tendencies, in combo with your systems strengths is very potent. FWIW, it IS morning in my time zone! I have not taken a trade in over an hour. Never forget, the market deals the hand you play or do not play.

Trade On!
 
After applying time filters to a few average performing intraday strategies, win rates improved. I like to keep the parameter inputs at a minimum, when that is done the last step is to look at time filters, day filters. Liked the 5am to 10am, or variations of start: mid-Europe session to end: an hour or two into the US session. Some strats that I would never considered running past the US close, performed the best by only executing between 4pm to 9pm. Another, looking for an established trend only @ late morning or late afternoon.

Interesting what you find by purely playing with time filters...even squeezing the time 'live' down to a 2 to 3 hr window.

For discretionary traders, it's eye-opening what you find when you start tracking your hit rate % depending on the day of the week...e.g.skip Thursday/Friday. Trading logs (Excel) are just as if not more useful than the diary format.

From a system perspective, there might be better factors/filters to play with: the prior day's high and low.
 
My best plays have come off of fib retracement plays and also strong breaks of the 50 and 20ma on the 1 minute charts, and then a retest of the MA, when the MA holds I get in, long or short. all of these plays tend to happen in the mornings, For example this morning When apple opened under the daily pivot point and was dropping like a boat anchor, i got in on the second little bounce at around 438, rode it down to the first pivot support at 435. I got in 430 puts at 3.40, and sold my 10 contracts at 3.85. 450 profit in a few minutes. However I left a huge move out, since its trading at 429 right now. It looks like my 10 contracts would have netted me close to 3k profit now.


Im just getting into the active day trading in my practice account. all of the trades I make in the morning are usually making me a nice profit, 300-900 being my highest.

But after noon trading has rocked my account, hence the reason Im down 6k in the last couple weeks. This month im gonna focus on morning plays only, and try not to trade so much. Hopefully I can work out the kinks in my trading and start to trade real money this summer.

I feel like if I can limit my positions to 1 to 3 entries a day, I wait for the best setups.

My first week I made like 120 trades in 3 days. I was cutting my losses fast, but when u are making 120 option trades in 3 days, those $50 losses plus comissions add up REAL fast! lol

morning entries, and less entries for now :)
 
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