How did you come up with those specific times? If we are talking about eminis, or even stocks, a good time to trade is anytime there are most others traders trading as well. That will provide liquidity, and help push prices. Those times are 10 to11, and 2:30 to 4, EST. Just look at the volume, it says it all, those are the times. So, trade when others are trading, not when someone else is telling you to trade and disregards facts completelly.
One method I have found to decrease my losers is to plot/study my best and worst performing stocks each month. I take out the worst few performers every month, and pay attention to the best five (which often repeat) so I know when to be aggressive. This only works for those that trade many stocks each month. Attached are June's results. The X axis is # of stocks, and Y is P&L.
ninjatrader provides statistics on all of your trades. i simply imported this file into excel and plotted some charts. i could actually see 'waves' of times were i would make and lose money. so these times indicate when i trade well and when i don't. closely related to the market, but not quite. you are exactly right, no need to waste your time trading light volume. this does 2 bad things: it lowers your risk/reward because of the extra noise, and it psychologically drains you. i am just starting to trade so i have been of the school of thought that i should trade the whole day (for practice) until i get a better grip on my trading and strategy. now that i have reached that level, i am realizing that its not only going to be not worth trading these slow times, but it actually might improve my trading during the afternoon times with a clearer head.
I usually wait for Walther to tell me when. (btw, thanks nitro, everyone was just *dying to know* your trading hours.)