Do you trade E-minis 24 hours or RTH only?

very conservatively and lower size out of RTH, I do like to take an early peek into the day around 6:30 - 7 EST in the morning as normally vol is quite good for some scalps then.

 

i'm on the west coast of Canada and the trading hours question is also applicable
to the eurusd/6E that i trade
on Thursday i created the attached ES 60min chart that i've yet to analyze, and also
the 6E - not attached to see what hours may offer the best trading price range

i've generally traded afternoon, night till about 3am PST but thinking to - groan -
change to an early start - really, REALLY early start

the chart displays about 19 trading days data starting Aug 9 ?
blue vertical line marks 6am PST , my potential start time; note that i'd likely be
'ready' - ie at the computer after ablutions, news reading, chart update analysis
etc by 5am PST , since most US economic reports are released at 5:30am PST
pale grey vertical line is the rth closure, red vertical line is 10pm PST which i could
trade to before getting some sleep

don't know about the ES but the west coast Sunday fx opening - 2pm PST can be -
but not always a very profitable 'day'. regarding Sunday as a separate trading day
means there's 26 trading days in the month

 

Many bargain hunters a/h who waste your time and sleep.

 

here's the eurusd/6E chart if you'd like to see the difference -
same hours and vertical lines
pip/tick value of the 6E is the same as the ES, same daily margin
the daily HL range of the eurusd/6E during June was 146 pip/ticks, didn't calculate
the ES range and i haven't done an average of the rth range which might be worth
doing to see whether the 6E or ES has a greater profit potential, tho think that's a
bit relative day-to-day
major difference is the 6E volume is about 10-15% of the ES daily volume

 

That's the problem, the trading is never good afterhours. Such a blanket statement is obviously an overstatement, but i think it very closely resembles the truth. Most "traders" lose money anyway, but for successful traders, I don't see how it is possible to continuously make good money in the after hours markets. There just isn't much volatility, and volatility is a necessary component to making money via trading.

 

Being employed, I trade between 3 and 5am Eastern. Volume on the ES picks up at 3 am which coincides with the open of the European Markets.

 

their are some good moves after the regular trading hrs close

the european open session offers good trading opportunities

good volume & ranges if you don't mind trading in the middle of the night

 

I agree, I find good setups with very good moves with less program manipulated trading on both the ES and euro futures during euro session ( 3am-6am..NY time) Patience is key...

 

You can't burn the candle at both ends. Stick w/ RTH.

 

To the people who say that you need volatility to make money, could you change your posistion size to account for an increase or decrease in volatility? IMO you are doing it wrong if you think you need volatile markets to make money.