Best Thread Everything you always wanted to know about trading...but were afraid to ask!

[jonboy123]

great question jonboy. I think changing different indicies, futures etc. to match the market their own market hours would make things faily complicated. But that said it would be up to the trader. It may make things more simple for you. I used to trade futures and it seemed almost everything had different hours (even though they trade after hours on globex). Wheat would shut down trading in the morning for me for about 45 minutes or so while ICE had different hours.

I left my charts times alone, but had the different market hours posted above my computer so I could see them at a glance. I'm not sure if I answered your question. Basically, it's up to you and what makes thing the easiest.

i think it make sense, especially when doing daily bars analysis. (to change indices to reflect the trading session of that country) and you can see the gap up/down, if its 24 hour charts, its like 24 hour price movement, futures and normal session blended into one...

if youre actively watching and trading the market when it is open, then it doesnt really matter for intraday, as thats happening now, the start time is not an issue on charts as youre living in the moment, as youre viewing the price in real time.... but when longer term analysis on dailys and end of day, then it can be an issue, i think. Im not 100% sure, just thinking aloud here...

eg FTSE is 8am to 4.30pm uk session, my chart was showing 24 hours of ftse pricing, but after changing it to show only data for that time period... it makes sense i think.

I wonder how professional traders set their charts up.

cheers.

 

[jefftheripper]

good point. you may want to send a p.m. to trader-dante as he is a pro trader and has worked at a prop firm with many other pros. I'm in a trading room with him and several others. Their daily charts differ from mine because I'm in the U.S. and most of them are in Europe. Since we're day traders I haven't noticed a difference in performance though.

 

[trader_dante]

thankyou

another query: IG index advanced charts, im trying to change the time zones and trading hours, i hear i should set FTSE to the actual hours of 8 to 4.30, rather than have the chart show 24 hours 7 days a week data. But i cant seem to do it in IG. I go to options time zones and wehn i enter what i want it just ignores it and goes back to 0.00 to 0.00. Ive emailed IG.

And also what else should i change (times) for the charting? USA indices? commodities?

FX too..

Shall i uncheck weekend data option?

just wondered how one should look and set up their charts for indices.
(Im in UK)

cheers

Hi Jonboy,

I use FxPro for charting and don't change the times at all. As long as I have all the data it doesn't really matter to me what time zone my broker is on or anything like that as price is fluid. The only thing that matters is obviously the active hours. E.g. I want to know the opening and closing times of my market and when its more active hours are but I know this for all my markets without needing to rely on charting...

The real confusion sets in when you have to decide how to display the data in futures. E.g. Continuous or by contract etc. I never even met a professional that could tell me what the right thing was to do there ;-)

 

[spinola]

The real confusion sets in when you have to decide how to display the data in futures. E.g. Continuous or by contract etc. I never even met a professional that could tell me what the right thing was to do there ;-)

Jack D. Schwager recco'd using continuous data , he was a longer term positional trader . Into technical patterns etc etc. using dailies.

Can't remember why he opted for that,(probably ease of displaying fluid data) but he has a couple books out that no doubt have his reasons in.

Schwager on futures , was one of his books IIRC. So his theory might help you see some merit in the differences , or not !

You know the bloke, Author of Market Wizards n all that ,...