based on the first post, it appears he already does now from there if he wants something with even bigger daily ranges and wider swings on a consistent basis, TF is the only one to fit that descript
Preferably traded actively around US regular trading hours... ... eliminates DAX. I looked at that one too, couple of issues there. Wild spikes and slams from seemingly nowhere are frequent, margins relative to eminis and active hours are when I sleep. If DAX was the only choice and no others, it would suffice with personal adjustments.
The Dax is very active during the first few hours of the US session , and it still has some good moves afterwords until the US close . Anyway i don't understand the fixation about trading a single instrument the whole time , unless you are a pro scalper , trading different markets -just one open position - gives you more opportunities , instead of just starring at a single market the whole time looking to make a living by jumping in and out many times , its not going to happen . Sometimes indices aren't clear but maybe grains are , or CL or metals ... etc . Just my 2 cents .
Thanks everyone for comments. I'll definitely look @ ZS and HO. As for multiple instruments, already practice that, but even watching 8 instruments the best setups don't occur like every day. Probably stocks could solve that, but that solution would be followed by few problems related to the decision...
Well, logic is that watching different markets would result in trade setups happening at different times, which is somewhat true. But two things tend to happen repeatedly... #1: all markets make sudden and/or extreme moves based on the same news that affects all markets alike. Anything that rocks currency markets will push stocks and commodities at the same time. Then you have all hell breaking loose on every screen at once. #2: you tend to pay more attention to the symbol that is struggling and miss the ones that are moving smoothly. Bad price action tends to attract our focus, because we want to "fix" those trades in choppy markets. Meanwhile, the ones we aren't paying attention to are flowing smoothly instead. Lastly, a lot of traders just want to focus for an hour or three in a given session, pull what's available from a selected symbol and done with work for that day. Lest any of us forget, trading is work. We all got started trading because we wanted more money = free time to do the things in life we call recreation or hobbies or sports. Trading is work... the sooner we can be done with work and outta the office, the better we are making our personal goals happen
What effects the currency markets wont have much influence on grains or gasoline , each market has its own news , ofcourse you have to pay close attention to news when trading commodities , like USDA reports for grains ... etc . Been there , i do much much better with multiple instruments , you cant imagine the difference . Its not only about a certain setup that you wait to happen , its the different volatility and market characteristics . If you are just focusing on one contract you're missing a load of opportunities out there , and i firmly believe that trading one contract will make you force trades and setups , whether you feel it or not , and that's one of the main reasons why traders lose , ofcourse watching multiple markets isn't for everyone , it can be dangerous if you aren't familiar with the markets you're trading ...
Personally speaking, and by no means not for everyone else, at this stage of my career I perform much better focused on a single futures instrument than several. Part of that is I'm trading somewhat fast setting charts so things tend to happen quickly when they do. Part of that is I find myself drawn to focus on the poorly behaving symbol while trying to make something good come out of that, even as the other(s) slip my attention. Now if someone is trading slower charts, i.e. 5min setting for big moves or swing trades, that's different. When I'm trading FX the charts are set at 60min / 1000 volume seeking swings of a session or three in length. So I work several pairs at a time. But TF or CL with a 500 volume / 200ish tick chart combo for executions, when things happen they tend to happen real fast. For me at this stage of my career, I perform best working with one volatile symbol and keeping an eye on that while I multi-task. Surf the web, handle office tasks, sort my fishing tackle box... anything to break the monotony of constant chart vigilance. If trying to watch several symbols in a faster mode, the unbroken focus can only maintain so long before it falters. So I've been on both sides of the fence. More years than not, I traded multiple symbols at a time. Somewhere along the way, markets and myself changed. Lastly, all markets are more inter-related now than at any time in the past. Some Fed utterance that knee-jerks interest rates will definitely spike precious metals, industrial metals like copper, grains like corn and soybeans along with crude oil and gasoline. All markets are more USD - EUR -JYP fixated now than at any time prior in history. Sharp moves tend to happen all at once, or in rapid sequence many times.
One other factor for multiple symbols... and I do think this is most important of all... they cannot all be traded the same. For example, TF and CL, NQ to some degree tend to spike and blow away when they break congestion zones at key S/R levels. If they are trending OR changing trend direction in front of directional moves, many times price action will pop thru key congestion and keep on pushing away with no pullbacks. Meanwhile, ES and other various instruments will break similar zones at the same time but pull back repeatedly to test and retest key levels before pushing away. End result of price moving from relative highs to lower or lows to higher is the same... but process getting there is different. If you try to manage CL and ES or TF and ES trades together, you will miss some big moves by not playing momentum breakouts and waiting for all pullbacks in CL and TF. But if you play all breakouts in ES, you will get pullback stopped in a lot of otherwise performing trades. Juggling the logic of managing trade executions that differ across various symbols can make the difference between catching, missing or flubbing executions of that one good trade on days where only one good trade exists.
Well when i said watching multiple markets , didn't mean you should open many positions simultaneously , just one position at a time and keep looking for opportunities across different markets ...