IMO, from 9:30-11:00, the markets usually behave one way and are usually directional most of the time... then after 11AM they change after the EU close and AM lunch hour... which further gets interesting after the bond close... basically, afternoons are usually tougher and there is either a change in direction or chop... with most of the action returning around 3:00PM or so and into the close...
What in the hell is your trading plan? A journal "promotes profits" only if it's the record of an attempt to implement a thoroughly-tested and consistently profitable trading plan. Otherwise it's just masochism.
that is exactly right. thanks. less trades during this time, dont know how to trade sideways. thanks for the heads up.
you are right. i dont have a clear trading plan, trying to catch the price action through level2 and t&s. i am pretty new in the game. a lot to learn from you guys.
Then stop torturing yourself. This is not where you should be after all this time. Decide what you want and how you plan on going about getting it. Don't trade a certain instrument or a certain method just because you think that's the way it's done. There is no way you're going to be able to continue this course for the time it will take for you to become self-supporting. You'll be a wreck first, unless you go broke before that, which just might be a blessing.
Here's something that might help. Record all you trades in a spreadsheet, and classify them by the hour or half hour of entry. Study each period over many weeks/months of trad data, and try to see which periods produce your best P&L or P:L ratio. Then you can concentrate on trading these periods of the trading day, and either trade smaller size during the poorer performance hours, or avoid them altogether. You may find, for example, that trades entered in say the 30 mins between 1030 and 1100 are bad performers, so why trade at all then...? I find this helps in my trading. Mo
but wouldn't that be kind of 'curve fitting'? I sometimes think about similar ideas to that which you suggest, but then I wonder if it actually makes any sense.
"Do More of That Which Is Working and Less of That Which Is Not: This works in life as well as trading. Do the things that have been proven of merit. Add to winning trades; cut back or eliminate losing ones. If there is a "secret" to trading (and of life), this is it. " From Dennis Gartman's 'NOT-SO-SIMPLE RULES OF TRADING'
Mo, thanks for the idea. But are we supposed to have different trading strategies at different times of the day? I was trying to do as many trades as possible, but don't have a good strategy for that period of time. I have performance reports and watching that closely.