The volume on ES seems to reduce drastically after the first hour. After 1040 ET the market is pretty much dead. What's going on? And I thought ES is the world's most liquid market... What are the big boys trading if it's not the ES?
During the summer trade from 9:30 am edt until 11:00 a.m. Then from 3:15 pm to 4:00 pm. The mid-day is a time period some call "The Losers's Ball". People who get clipped early end up attending the Loser's Ball and make things worse. You will save yourself a lot of money staying out of the mkt during the mid-day. In September when the volume/volatility picks up, the mid day isn't as bad.......but for now is a waste of time. Just my 2 cents.
I was talking in terms of the equity market, excluding everything else (bonds etc). So if it's not ES, what is it? NQ and YM are equally dead.
Your observation seems to be spot on, volume does pick up from about 3pm ET. Do you know the reason for this? Do the professionals simply close shop after 11am ET? I mean that's not even lunch hour... What do they do until 3pm ET?
Most of the big funds tend to do most of their trading in the first and last hour. So normally thats when you see the most volume/ the best time to trade. During the summer with low volume/low volatility thats when most traders get involved. When things pick up in the fall the mid day won't be AS bad. Most traders I know just sit back and do research...eat lunch...find other things to do during the mid-day...do anything to stay the hell outta the market. On Fridays in the summer most guys I know leave the desk by 11 a.m. for the day.
EPrado Here's another thought: what about program trading? Surely the computers also don't go to sleep after 11am? What about all the arbitrage programs, pair trades programs etc etc? Thanks in advance.
Not exactly sure, but I would guess a lot of them are volume based. So when volume slows down maybe they scale back? I think it's a snowball like effect. Funds slow down after first hour or so.....algo's/programs slow down....traders slow down. Look 15 min chart each day for the last few weeks. It's like clockwork. 11:15 or so everything stops and the SP sits in a 3-5 point range until 3:15 or so. I know as far as my trading, until that changes (and not for just one day), I won't trade mid-day hours. Plenty to do first hour/last hour. Once we hit the fall things should change. Until then best to stay out of the "dead" times.