Actually I scalp the estx50 at the opening with some kind of success. I'de like to trade emini but I can do it only in the last hour of the session (3PM-4PM). I don't know what to think about this part of the session as I am very familiar with the dynamics of an opening. Volume seems to be a bit lighter than at the open. Do you find the same momentum ? Should I concentrate more on the last 15/30 minutes ? Thanks for any advices.
I find the last 15 minutes to be the worst. Lots of volatility, but more times than not, you will get whipsawed to death. I like to be out of ES by 3:40pm at the latest. I may miss that occasional big move at the close, but more times than not you will get burned by staying to the close. The afternoon move generally starts before 3pm. You probably want to start scouting around 2:15-2:30pm. By default, I am always looking for a mirror image of the morning move (i.e. up in morning, down in afternoon, and so on). Sometimes an up day keeps going up, sometimes a down day keeps going down, but that's what makes trading so fun! You have to be adaptable to whatever the market brings. Good lick.
Actually I just sit & watch to understand what is going on there. I sometimes put 1 or 2 trades here & there when things are really obvious but i'm really cautious.
Most of the experienced traders that I deal with do not trade the last 10 minutes unless they are flattenning their position. They try to avoid unexplained choppiness. The chop is caused by last minute position adjustments by the Institutions and hedge accounts. The risk reward at this time is negative for most traders, especially some one from a remote site. I am sure that some traders can trade the close well, but most feel that it is choppy with no real technical or fundamental basis behind the chop. This is quite different compared to the Open Outcry traders. In the pit you want to be there for the close because you can see the Market orders coming and react to them. The screen is not as transparent.