I would like to swing trade index futures overnight to capture the bigger movements instead of daytrading. Trading at the open is too choppy for me and i don´t recognize barely setups to trade. Scalping is the last i would like to do. Are here some members who swing trade index futures overnight for days?
your questions are not clear. Do you mean - Swing trading US index futures during the Asian / European sessions. - Trading US index futures at the opening of the US session is too choppy choppiness is the biggest biggest killer. You can't earn $$$ when the market is choppy It can occur anywhere, anytime. It can occur during Asian, European, US session, during the early session, mid-session, end session. Identify the choppy markets. Then avoid trading it. Which is better? day or swing trading? it depends on individuals. I gave up swing trading years ago. I only do day trading futures. will swing trading catches a bigger movement? not really. take for example yesterday. those who day traded European index futures were able to catch bigger movement than swing traders.
From other posts you wrote i know you are trading mostly the micros. What is your favourite timeframe and how long do you stay in a trade on average? I´m watching the daily and the 30m time frame. Some months ago i tried daytrading the micros on a 1m or tick chart. That was a no go for. Much too fast for an old man ;-) I´m using Motivewave and would have the opportunity to use all the fancy stuff like TPO, oderflow etc. but i want to keep it simple.
@maxinger When enter a trade i would like to stay in for longer than one session/day. Since i´m trading from europe i would buy during the us session/european and go to sleep during the asian session. I can´t trade during the asian session.
ok. holding it for a longer period might not give you more profit. take for example yesterday's European index futures. If you shorted it and hold it for very long, you might end up negative. and those who day traded it would be very happy. yesterday was an excellent day for the day traders, not swing traders.
I do not trade with time-based charts, and as a swing trader, time on charts matters not anyways. Only time to contract expiration. Seems to me that you are trying to avoid RTH opening noise by wanting to hold a trade through the overnight session? To me, that is not a swing/position trade. I *think* you need to reassess your goals. My goal is to meet a certain profit target by being a bull in a china shop. If I have to suffer a 20% correction to meet that goal, so be it. It is certainly not elegant, and can be considered downright dumb. But it works for ME. I am still working on the idiosyncrasies of how to average down, exit with profits, expiration, how rolling can impact account, performance bond changes that can occur during the trades, and all that jazz. What I do is not for the timid, and not for one with a small bankroll. That is why I do it on micros. ;-)
I would not say which one is better, day trading or overnight swing trading. With overnight swing trading, you take on more risk. But you do not have to take a shallow stop loss and close out your position by end of day. Find some style that better suits your own needs.
And this is where I fall down! OMG, where does this idea come from?!?! The ON session in ES (the ETH) had a 20 point range from RTH close to RTH open. The RTH open to close had a 40 point range! So where was the risk more amplified? In RTH! UG!!!
what is swing trading to you? I do not avoid market opening in general but don´t want to enter a trade at that time because it´s so choppy.