Like everyone is saying depends on your trading style of when to trade , I am also based in the U.K. and I think its the best time zone to be in . I trade the Dax in the morning and go on to the ES from 9.30am to 11.30am (eastern time). For me that time (9.30-11.30) has the highest amount of volume and volatility and also has the highest amount of algorithmic trading activity. Most people hate the kind of institutional program activity that happens in the sp100 stocks and ES but I love it , if you have the right tools to exploit it ..
neoxx dont listen to other peoples advice about when to avoid trading etc. make your own rules to fit your own system from your own personal observation. overnight ES is fine imo if you are a small player as you will always have liquidity. just always use stops just incase. overnight moves seem to bounce more obviously off S&R in my oberservations. then the americans come in and love to fake out levels etc. but i like that since i am good at reading fakes and reversals, but each to his own
If you are in UK you have Eurostoxx 50 available if you are afraid about ES liquidiity and high sigma. I can confirm one thing /it is no valid just for index futures but on many other commodities as well like Gold, currencies, etc/. Swings can be wilder than during US session but evident stop runs are far rarer. Less faking, trading is more profitable for me. It tends more stay in channels without so many ugly reversals. Just watch out various reports.
The stoxx is another option and you don't have to be UK based to trade it. I can trade it via Open ECry no problem.
The ES trades from 16:30 to 16:15 of the next day. Volume is much less during hours when the NYSE is closed. Make sure to use limit orders during after-hours.
I trade ES after hours. Mainly becasue I live in New Zealand and I can be awake. There is plenty of movement but you have to be patient for entries. I set audible alerts [and sometimes limit orders] at my entry levels so I don't have to watch the screen all time. Try putting a chart of the FTSE100 under your SnP chart, they move synchronously once the UK markets open [except on Thursday where the SnP looked decidedly heavy c/w with FTSE maybe coincidence but if I ever see that again I'm going short]. I target between 2-5pts. And am usually covered and in bed before the US news starts coming out. The only time I have got into trouble was last Thursday where I was long and kept waiting for that lucky bounce that never came. If your interested mY average win size is 3.9pts [17 wins] and my average loss is 20pts [2 losses]. I havent been using stops. Cheers
Thanks Browns... this is what I'd suspected. I think a decent working compromise will be to start trading a couple of hours before RTH, exploiting some of the premarket potential without skimping on the learning opportunities offered by RTH.
Thanks for the response, Raker. Am curious, why do you opt for Dax in the morning?... liquidity issues?
By taking advice, you're effectively leveraging someone elses experience to flatten your learning curve. So long as it's good advice! So I've always been in favour of this, in any endeavour. I'm only trading 1-lot on a $5k account at the moment, so I guess premarket will offer a useful adjunct for the time being. Naturally, I'd like to scale-up once I achieve some consistency, so premarket may increasingly become a less viable option. And I'm religious about stops.
Thanks Pholeuon, I'll look into Eurostoxxx 50. I'm getting really comfortable with the Tradestation interface, so hoping I can access this through them. And those meaty, well-behaved premarket swings look really tempting.