I have finally made the transition to full time day trader as I was just trading until 11:30. Now that I am trading all day and my style is semi scalping day trader where I look to take out 14-28 cents on stocks like LVS and BP. So what I wanted to know is should I be taking a step back during lunch time so I dont get chopped up and if so what time to what. Do the big prop traders take off for lunch or do they sit all day?
Rub one out or have a few cold ones. BTW, there are maybe 10 "big prop traders" that read this board.
Each market is different, but from what I've seen from the ES (Emini S&P) I always went by taking a break around 11:30-noon to about 2:00pm. You should be able to get a feel for when volatility drops. It only really takes a couple weeks to see where the drop off is. Don't get into the habit of having a trading rule that you aren't going to trade during your predefined lunch hour market times, seeing one of your setups during the lunch hour that worked, and then breaking your rule to trade during the lunch hour because you saw a setup that worked. Stick to your rules.
so do you suggest since I trade strictly equities and I am more of a scalper that I should look towards having rules of only trading a golden setup from 12-1:30?
For me, I'm more conservative. I say don't trade at all. It's really up to you though. Some people trade all day, some only trade the first couple hours of the day. I don't particularly watch the ES closely anymore now that I discovered crude oil, but when I was sim trading I would try and stay away from the ES during those times that I mentioned because it just seemed so flat.
You can always smoke your own salmon and buy some bagels and some onion and tomato at the farmers market. And BAM....lunch
imo, i don't think it's worth it to trade after 2-3 hrs after the open as volatility starts to drop. But it's up to your preference. At the open, there is almost always a guarantee that there'll be volatility. You can make a lot of money or lose a lot of money really fast at this time. If you don't like that then you can always wait for things to slow down, but don't expect to make a lot of money really fast. But you won't be losing a lot of money either. Again it's all up to what you like and feel comfortable with.