Pacific time zone day traders – what is your schedule and sleeping habits?

[bathrobe]

Quote from NoDoji:

You're trading the absolute worst time of day for catching decent moves. I think it takes 3-6 weeks to change your sleep schedule, but it would be well worth it.

I'm asleep by 11:00pm, up by 5:30am, make notes of all major and minor S/R levels draw channels and often begin trading in pre-market (I trade futures).

The 30-45 minutes into the close is also good trading, but generally only for one good run.

You seem to be sleeping too much. There are several plans for adjusting a sleep schedule if you do an on-line search.

I needed a lot more sleep before I switched to a whole foods plant-based diet many years ago. I now need a little over six hours a night to feel fully energized and I have steady energy throughout the day, no more post-meal crashes like I used to have.

http://www.drmcdougall.com/free.html

http://engine2diet.com/

http://www.pcrm.org/shop/neal/seduction.html

All describe the same energy-promoting way of eating.

Thanks for the post, I have been looking to eat healthier

 

[Beezer-1]

My thanks to all of you. These are exactly the types of thought-provoking responses that I needed. I am serious about making trading work, and that’s why I want to model my habits after successful traders.

Because I am a night owl, and my day job starts late and ends late, I have decided to try trading the Europe open (ES. Maybe Euro too). Trading from midnight to 2am for me is easily done, and I will always be in a rested and wakeful condition during those hours. Then I can wake up at my normal time and still get around 7 or so hours of sleep.

I watched the Europe open last night. There was still a lot of volume being traded, although the speed of the market was comparable to NY lunchtime. I’m already used to that, so it’s not an issue.

The only negative I can think of is that my broker (Tradestation) does not give “daytrader” margin rates for ES (25% of normal) during non-NY trading hours. But again, this is something I can live with.

If for some reason trading the Europe open does not work out for me (strategy-wise), then I will have little choice but to wake up earlier and trade the NY open (or the grains). And as many have pointed out, this is a big change to make. I too have considered moving to a more trading-friendly time zone, but I’m quite happy here in CA.

Thanks again people. I’d like to hear more from anybody else who wishes to contribute. Plus any tips from Europe open ES traders would be appreciated.

Happy trading all!

 

[speres]

Quote from Beezer-1:

Guys, I have a fundamental issue with my trading that I need some help with. The issue is that I live in the Pacific time zone, and I’m not a morning person. When I wake up early, I am usually groggy and definitely not in peak condition to trade.

At this point I am totally willing to re-arrange my sleeping habits, exercise habits, nightly drinking habits, etc. My goal is to be in good condition to daytrade either the morning or early afternoon (after lunch, Eastern time) markets.

I am very interested in hearing the sleeping and trading schedules of pacific time day traders. Here’s an example of what I am currently doing (all times are Pacific):

Do yoga in the evening before dinner. Go to bed shortly after midnight (no alcohol). Wake up @ 9:30am (yes that’s a lot of sleep). Shower. Start trading the afternoon session from 10am to 11:30am or so, then off to the day job (where I don’t have access to the markets).

I felt great with this schedule, but I was left with only 1.5 hours of pretty lackluster post-lunch trading time. And if I accelerate this schedule by an hour or two, then it’s actually worse as I’m left with trading during lunchtime and the hour afterwards.

So what schedule works for you?

Did you have schedule problems in the past? What resolved them?

Any helpful insights?

For reference, I’m trading the NQ.


Beezer

I used to day trade the us markets when I was in britain, I only trade them now longer term since i moved,couldnt handle the hours. forget changing your sleep patterns especially for day trading as you need to be on top of your game. Trade a different liquid market. Theres heaps oz, asia,oil,metals, currencies, london , europe take your pick. The bigger the basket you have the better anyway