After testing with a demo account for a long time I will be making my first live options trades on RUT and IWM. Is Thursday a good day to begin, or will the price shuffling that occurs before the weekend make this a bad day to make my two opening trades? Should I wait until Monday? Also is there a particular time of day that would be good? I've heard that the markets are usually calmer around noon when the big boys go to lunch.
What day of the week and time to make my first live options trade?
- Thread starter thetafarmer
- Start date
Most of the trading occurs in the 1st couple of hours or EOD. Thurs is fine, know ahead of time what your trade/price is then put the trade on and give it time. If you are filled too quickly then it prob wasn't a great trade. The RUT is harder to fill IWM much easier.
Thanks for the replies. There was a technique that I read about quite some time ago and have since forgotten, but it involved a way to put in your order but "hide it" so to speak, so that it doesn't appear publicly and the market makers can't keep changing the bid and ask based on your order. Does that sound familiar to anyone? If so, how do you do it? I'm using ThinkorSwim.
You can't hide order completely. A common order type is called iceberg. You can show a 1 lot, but under it can be 1000. The other way would be to use a platform that uses what's called an electronic eye. It will only enter an order if the other side is available in the market place. TOS is not built for these order types. Most retail platforms are not. Iceberg is meant for large orders.
Just make the trade. The IWM is plenty liquid. No need to sweat details like the ones you're raising, at least at your stage.
Thursday is good and so is Monday. I can also recommend Tuesday and Wednesday. Friday could work as well. Whatever you do, avoid Saturday and Sunday, as those are known to be difficult days for trading.