What time do you get up in the morning? Do you take lunch breaks --or are you glued to the monitor all day. After a trading day -- when do you quit -- meanining if you treat trading as a business -- do you set your hours -- or are you thinking of trading all the time. comments appreciated for this newbie.
First of all, it depends on what markets your trading and how much experience your have with a particular trading instrument. For example...trader A that lives in the U.S. that trades the DAX fulltime will have different trading hours in comparison to trader B that trades ES Emini fulltime while living next door to trader A. Now...to answer your question...when I'm trading the European futures/derivatives like the DAX...I'm up at 2am est. However, when I'm trading U.S. futures like the ER2 and not any European futures...I'm up around 0630am est (I have a family and need to do the normal family stuff) and then start watching the markets around 0800am est. I take a 1 1/2 hour lunch break and probably another 15min random time away from the markets during the trading day. If I'm only trading the European stuff...I'm done around 1pm est but with about 2-3 random 15min time off from the markets. Yet, if I'm only trading the U.S. futures...my day is usually done by 3:30pm est and then I'll return later around 4pm est to begin my market wrap up journal...finishing that around 5pm est. After trading your particular markets for a few years...you'll learn when to stay glued to your computer screen and when its ok to do non-trading stuff. Simply, most traders I know that have a family usually have set trading hours as in a specific schedule. Those that don't are usually thrown out the house within a few years With that said...although you didnt' define the term trading all the time... I don't recommend it unless your single, mentally healthy and have nothing else in life but trading. P.S. I've been trading longer than 15 years and most of that fulltime...the first few years seemed like a big blur when it came to a specific trading schedule. Mark (a.k.a. NihabaAshi) Japanese Candlestick term
Market opens at 7:30am where i live...I usually wake up about 6:30am...crawl out of bed 15 minutes later. Takes about a 5 second commute from my bedroom to my computer room. Then I start checking what my strategy will be for the day. First 30 to 45 minutes of market open im glued to the screen. After that I usually find that I can walk away for a few minutes here and there depending on where my charts are at and how slow a stock is moving. The later it gets in the day, it seems the longer i can leave my screen...but I rarely trade a full day...I try to be out of all my trades by 10am. (2 hours and 30 minutes of trading) If you trade really big though I imagine you cant leave the screen for even a second.
Personally, I am up 6a.m. and attempt to do premarket trading from 7a.m. on with reference to stocks.. from 6 to 730-8 usd/jpy usd/chf occassional euro depending on the market and schedule I may place a few trades from 6-930 p.m. usd/jpy usd/chf I take several small breaks during the day and enjoy walks in the sun. Very healing and quiet I close the office to traders at 4pm with the occassional trader playing the after market or closing positions. depending on the stock(s) I also play stocks reporting for quick trades.. This is a full time business. w
Forgot to mention...even though Im only trading a few hours a day, Trading does occupy my mind for a considerable part of the day...weekends are horrible for me because Im so anxious about when monday is coming. I also seem to have dreams about trading at least once a week. But anyway, Treat trading like drinking Tanqueray....always in moderation.
Up at 5:30am CT. 5:45 - 6:45 Do aerobics on a semi-recumbant bike 6:45 - 7:15 Shave,shower,dress 7:15 - 7:45 Eat light breakfast. Watch some CNBC. 7:45 - 8:15 Boot up computer, check email for statements. Match up with yesterdays fills. 8:15 Re-boot computer and setup for trading ES. 8:30 - 3:20 In front of computer. I grab some food at lunch and am never away for more than 5min. 3:00 - 3:20 Print out online statements for tomorrow. 3:20 Shutdown computer and done for the day. If I have any trading thoughts I write them down during the day and sometimes do research if there isn't any trades on.
I try to be at my desk at least an hour before the open. Lots of times I just wake up early and am in an hour or more before that. From 30 minutes before to about an hour after the open I'm very busy. Then the rest of the day I'll get up every hour or two for a snack or to pester my wife. I always eat lunch at my desk. I don't trade very actively during the day, but have a lot of orders to watch and adjust and projects to tinker on. Always trading related work when in the office though. Record keeping and a little reading keeps me going until 30-60 minutes after the close. Sometimes I do a bit of prep before bed. Occaisionally I quit an hour early and workout. If I have a new idea I'm working on though, I'll put in a 15 hour day no prob.
wake up 6:34am CT get to work and start trading around 7:15am trade straight til 1pm and call it quits for the day...
All this information is for east coast time: I wake up at 5a. Eat breakfast/checks quotes. Get to the office by 6:30a. Double check all the equity runs and account statements to make sure they are correct and to make sure the right trades went into the right accounts and make sure that they didn't over charge for commissions. Double check all margin in all accounts. Yes I take lunch breaks, but I always have my BB with real time quotes on it so I can always see what is going on. When the day is over at 4:15p. I update all spreadsheets manually and wait for final settlement prices. At about 5:15 I leave the office. When I get home I pull up my quotes and check them periodically through out the night. Yes, I am always thinking about trading. In all honesty the only time I make myself not think about it is Friday @ 5:16 through Sunday @ 5:59p. I don't day trade so I always need to be aware of what the markets are doing. I suppose if you day trade things are different. I love what I do so I have no problem dedicating every waking moment to it.