What are you day trading on Globex US night session (i.e. London session and Tokyo opening)? I read a lot about other futures people are trading but the volume seems so low outside of the major indexes and top 4 or 5 currency futures. Sure, there are lots of options, but what are YOU day trading in 5-min or lower time frames during the night session? For me, I look at ES, NQ, 6E, 6B, sometimes 6A and 6J only if there is volume. My strategies do well when there are wider ranges. I use 2-min charts mostly, but have 1-min and 5-min chart setups too. I sometimes use tick charts but prefer fixed periods for execution simplicity.
i'm very interested in this thread, as i am new to futures and one thing that attracts me is the off-hours trading. i was poking around in 6E market mon eve (july 4 holiday). i was looking at 1 & 3-min charts on 6E and tried to get on a few swings in my Simulated account and ended up losing. They moved fast!
Source? Based on quick analysis of my SP500 data, since 1993 the open is only 54.8% higher than previous close for SP500 with average gain of 0.0363% gain. For the last few years: 2011-to-date: 52.34% higher opens, avg gain = 0.0215% 2010: 52.38% higher opens, avg gain = 0.0271% 2009: 55.56% higher opens, avg gain = 0.0239% The above results are based on theoretically buying the closing print, holding through entire night session, and selling the opening print at 9:30am. I doubt the move from 6:00am to 9:30am accounts for that large a difference, and if it did, there's your new system.
Why not trade something liquid that is actually open during the hours you desire to trade? I`m not sure about the volume in the CME currency futures, but currencies is actively traded during both the London and Tokyo session, so there should be plenty of opportunity. Then you have all the European and Asian indices; DAX, FTSE, EUROSTOXX, HSI, KOSPI, etc. This is something I probably will need to do some research on myself, since I`m not interested in trading the US session forever when living in Europe. Good luck!