Are Japanes stocks subject to that pattern day trader rule (the rule that forces me to trade futures because they are safer than stocks)? And what are some of the symbols of stocks that trade after 8 pm est that I can trade through IB?
<b>freewilly</b>, I think you'll find that FX trading sucks between 8:00pm and midnight EST. That is probably one of the worst four-hour stretches to consistently trade currencies. If I were limited to your hours, Globex ES or NQ trading would be my choice. The opportunities will be limited, but available. B1S2 (amongst others) gave great advice... swing or position trading is absolutely ideal for part-time trading, by necessity or choice :>)
Get a PDA and laptop and use EVDO broadband you can be connected anytime and everywhere. I use thinkorswim for options trading they have a kickass java client that works flawlessly over low bandwidth connections like EVDO. If your 9-5 isnt too demanding this might be an ideal situation for you.
Thanks all. The only reason I haven't spend time looking up tradings on futures, currencies, etc is because "my impression" is that majority of traders there are experienced, or professional. It is pretty much a zero sum game for those tradings. It would be an up-hill battle for me. I GUESS that trading stocks is relatively easy. Is this true? There are so many stocks available, and some of them don't have a whole lot of experienced day traders. I could be wrong, please correct me if so. I have done some paper trading, and so far I can only see decent gains by intrady swing trading, holding stocks for 10 minutes to few hours, but clear all positions before the market is closed. This certainly is hard for a guy who has a regular 8-5 job. I have a relatively flexible hours, but even so, it is impossible to keep an eye on stocks every minute. Using stops definitely helps. but I haven't found a good way to set up stops better than manual execution. I know this is hard, but this is my life. I will find a good way to suit my hours. Thanks all, Freewilly
Yes, I give some serious thoughts on swing trading (holding stocks for few days to few weeks) and position trading (holding stocks for 1 month at least), but I have done back testing on swing trading, I can only have limited gain. So far, only thing that works on my paper trading is intraday swing trading. On paper I trade on 400K buying power, last week, I made about $2000 after commissions, and this week I made $6700 after commissions. Freewilly
Come on Austin, Your getting overly USCentric there. I trade those hours because they're my morning and ES and NQ are generally rubbish compared with the three easier Asian markets (SGXNK, STW and HSI). Thin and ugly and probably just following the Nikkei around anyway most of the time - much better to trade what they're following instead. Check out those morning trends on the Nk (evening in NY) even after big days on the US markets where the gap will kill the first few hours of HSI trading. Just check out the NK charts for movement and volume during that period vs ES or NQ.