End of day candlesticks

[danielson]

Hi all. I'm currently looking to swing trade EUR/USD and GBP/USD end of day, and as part of my strategy I only enter trades when the previous day has seen a minimum price movement of at least 100 pips. In ProRealTime I have my timezone set at EST to tie in with the NY, which makes the start and end of day 00:00 to 00:00 and the candle printed as such. The timezone setting is obviously going to affect whether my strategy sets up or not as I may not reach 100 pip if it runs 00:00-00:00 as opposed to 16:30-16:30 or even 09:00-09:00, and vice versa. I assume this is just a case of win some lose some, but I'm interested to hear if anyone has any ideas or opinions about whether setting the charts to a different time zone could be beneficial. Like if I were to set it up so that my end of day candles would be printed at the end of normal EST trading hours, meaning the start of the day was 16:30 the previous day, and the end being 16:30 that day? I'm aware that forex is a 24h operation but it obviously quietens down outside of uk and us business hours.

Apologies in advance if this isn't very clear as its quite hard to explain, but I'll happily try and elaborate if necessary.

 

[timsk]

. . .Apologies in advance if this isn't very clear as its quite hard to explain, but I'll happily try and elaborate if necessary.

Hi Danielson,
I get the general gist of the problem: setting the best - or most appropriate - time zones to trade forex is a fairly common issue. I can't recommend one time zone in preference to another, not least because I don't trade forex! However, in your shoes, I'd do a test to see if one time zone is better than another. By 'better', I mean more/less trades are generated which are profitable/unprofitable accordingly. Then go with the time zone that gives the best results.
Tim.

 

[danielson]

Hi Danielson,
I get the general gist of the problem: setting the best - or most appropriate - time zones to trade forex is a fairly common issue. I can't recommend one time zone in preference to another, not least because I don't trade forex! However, in your shoes, I'd do a test to see if one time zone is better than another. By 'better', I mean more/less trades are generated which are profitable/unprofitable accordingly. Then go with the time zone that gives the best results.
Tim.

Thank you timsk. Yeah I'd kind of gathered that would be the only way. I'm guessing in the long run it would probably level itself out in terms of lost profits and avoided losses. Can you point towards any other threads discussing similar issues by any chance?

Cheers

 

[timsk]

. . . Can you point towards any other threads discussing similar issues by any chance?

Hi Danielson,
I'm afraid I didn't have any specific threads in mind when I said the issue has cropped up in the past. Sorry! I've done a quick search and I can't see any results that address this particular question.

You could try sending an e-mail to [email protected] who, as the address implies, provide chart support for ProRealTime. I'm guessing you have any account with IG? In which case, you could contact your account manager there and see what they advise. In the meantime, hopefully, members who trade forex will see this thread and chip in with their thoughts.
Tim.