Hi, Regarding after hours liquidity in e-mini NQ and ES: 1) What type of volume is there after US Equity market hours? 2) Are there certain times outside of US Equity market hours when the volume really picks up? 3) What are the ranges like outside of US Equity market hours? In other words, are there really many good daytrading opportunities outside of 9:30 am to 4 pm EST? Thanks
It is very boring late at night. It can make moves though, but for the most part very little volume. Not worth it in my opinion.
Opens at 3:00 am eastern. This thread should help answer any questions. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8036&highlight=50
The liquidity is very poor relative to regular trading hours, and the spread can be hurt you to. The only exception would be if you are taking a position or swing trade based on some other information where you think by getting in early you will have advantage (e.g. you are predicting a large move from the open or leading up to the open in premarket activity based on some other data, whether fundamental or technical correlation such as overseas performance of certain index or currency).
The after hours liquidity is usually pretty bad and there is usually barely any movement. When there is movement, it usually begins around 3AM. IMHO, it is not worth to trade. Too risky.
Everyone is negative about after-hours ES & NQ but I've had good results (Disclaimer: I'm a newbie trading since May 2002 and I'm down 2.5% overall.) Liquidity is, obviously, fairly low but variable. When the market wakes back up at 4:45 PM EST there are often a number of players in there and the market can make some large moves. It dies down but in the 7 - 9 PM EST range, the Far East traders start waking up and you see some little plays in the market. Sometime you feel like you are in a movie like "The Seven Samurai": Traders seem to jump in and try to move the market on their own. They usually fail, but you can easily fade the movement. I've never stayed around much later than midnight, but I assume the Europeans start jumping in around 2 or 3 AM EST, as someone else noted. Anyway, if you want an overnight play, it's easy to jump on board in after-hours or in the pre-trade. I've found my own intuition to be trustworth. Tonight was a good example during the President's speech. There was a few downward points to be had in ES.