Intraday traders: do you trade on Fridays?

[alexaherself]

Do you trade on Fridays?

Do you find it worthwhile?

For those regularly making (some or all of) their livings by intraday trading, what proportion of your yearly/monthly comes from Friday trading, on average?

(90% of my income comes from Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with Monday's and Friday's remaining 10% mostly coming from Mondays.)

 

[Forexmospherian]

Do you trade on Fridays?

Do you find it worthwhile?

For those regularly making (some or all of) their livings by intraday trading, what proportion of your yearly/monthly comes from Friday trading, on average?

(90% of my income comes from Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with Monday's and Friday's remaining 10% mostly coming from Mondays.)

Hi Alexa

Look forward to answering it with a bit of detail

Trouble is - I am trading atm ;-) - but will come back later on


Regards


F

 

[Forexmospherian]

I can understand why many FX swing traders might not look at Friday being a viable trading day and so therefore rule it out. It does not surprise me that Alexaherself looks upon 90% of her trading income coming from just 3 days of the week and therefore if a Friday is not providing even a fifth of a busy Wednesday or Friday - then why bother ?

More than likely records might show Friday a negative trading day - or all the gains of the busy previous day or two being lost - especially when its NFP Friday etc.

With me being predominantly a shorter term intraday trader - I don't really look in terms of 24 hrs or a trading day - so for me every trading day of the week as the chance to be really busy and rewarding - or not so good and not contributing the normal 20% of my weekly income.

For instance - I look upon there being 120 FX trading hrs over 5 days and really normally only 40 to 60 of those hours count - ie maybe 70 to 85%+ of all the main moves are done in that third to half of the total hours in the week. I therefore try and be around for those 40 to 60 hrs over the 5 days - all depending on my own and family diary. I have a daily target - both in terms of pips and money and that target is set at a level that should be overachieved whilst remaining realistic. This is also born out by the fact that over a trading month I have trading days when I achieve the daily targets in under 2 hrs - and then other days when I need 6 to 8 hrs to overcome my losses and end up in a net position.

I am very much into the "devil in the detail " analysis and so like to be making positive returns over every 2 hrs - so if my daily window in 10 hrs - I will break it down into 3 main split sessions - all based again on the assumed main movement periods - ie 6am to 10 am / Midday to 2pm / 3pm to 5 pm - where I then only cover 15 to 20 mins of every hr period. If I make losses after any 2 hr period - then i need to carry on to get back to a net positive return - however in theory if I have achieved over my daily target in the first 4 hr session of the morning ( again that only takes me less than 2 hrs of screen time ) - then really I can stop for the day.

I am sure Alexa you rank your trades and have an ideal AAA+++ type trade. It might be using a 15 or 25 pips stop and a target of say 100 to 200+ pips over 1 to 3+ day ?. My own AAA+++ type trade is a 3 or 5 pip stop and a result of 25 to 40 pips all within 20 to 30 minutes. I expect to only catch my best theoretical AAA+++ trades just once or twice a day - but also have many just AAA trades of again tight stops and a result over 15 + pips - giving me a RR of over 2+.

Over my average week - i will expect take between 60 to 90 trades - all depending on the results of each trade. I would obviously prefer just 2 trades - both wins and make 50 pips rather than have to make 13 trades because of 5 losses to get the same result. Unfortunately I can only control my entry and exit and the FX pair I trade and not the movements whilst I am in that trade - but work on the basis - don't sit around waiting 3 hrs + for a AAA+++ trade opportunity when in that time I can catch 3 or 5 decent AAA type trades

I also think its important if you are a full time FX trader to trade every day - basically to learn more - gain more knowledge etc. That does not mean you have to spend 4 or 8 hrs every Monday or Friday though.

Also - we should not forget the main reward of trading - ie the money we make or would like to make every week. I find FX intraday trading boring - especially after you have been doing it full time a few years - but its also offers me a lot of personal freedom and a nice lifestyle. My previous career in the business world was far more entertaining - but involved even more pressures and stress and did not make me the same amount income as many of my busiest months do nowadays.

We all have different requirements and so if a trader is happy with the financial reward they make just from say 10 or 15 hrs work a week - then that's good and i say well done to them. However if they want larger financial rewards - it normally involves more commitment and time spent working. At my age I no longer want the 50 -70 hrs of work a week - but when I do have the odd weeks when I only need 20 hrs to well over achieve - I feel as though I am cheating on myself - yes strange - but its that old "work ethic" that maybe is difficult to shake off.

Good Trading

Regards

F

 

[NVP]

Do you trade on Fridays?

Do you find it worthwhile?

For those regularly making (some or all of) their livings by intraday trading, what proportion of your yearly/monthly comes from Friday trading, on average?

(90% of my income comes from Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with Monday's and Friday's remaining 10% mostly coming from Mondays.)

interesting point..............but can I ask ......if you are not fully focussed on Monday trading then you won make anything ?...........

we had some stonking Mondays a few weeks back ...and Fridays just work fine for me ............

N

 

[tokyojoe]

Hi Alexa, Tuesday is a main day for me in any given week, but it is always determined by my other (& main) income stream.
I find that it's not so much the day of the week that is important, but the time of day I'm active is very important to me. Two sessions, am/pm strict timeframe, always.
So while I have a very strict timeframe within the day, I do have a very casual approach as to which day I'm in, this means I don't even think about the markets when I'm not involved.

People have a preconception that Mondays & Fridays are slow days, but I've often found Monday has exploded into a consolidation day on the Tuesday.

Friday is a strange one, because I tend to be busy elsewhere, but I find Friday has been itchy fingers day for me, especially if I read the Friday AM session wrong, or miss too many AM entries through a grip of sudden fear factor, Friday PM then has potential to do damage.
I would then prefer to go into the following week fresh. Plus, well, it's Friday, I've opened a few late Friday afternoon positions where I've looked at potential weekend hold......it then fly's completely in the face of why I got into this.

I came into this arena thinking I wanted to transition to full time trading 5 days a week. But as mentioned, it can be very boring, I will only trade fast flow & it can often be a long wait for the pace to pick up.

I am a realist & see the day trading game as a daily wage, a wage that can be flushed down the drain in an instant by being a dumb-ass at the wrong time, being impatient, trading tired & all the other usual suspects.

So Fridays are a possible for me if I get on side early in the day.

 

[Fugazsy]

Do you trade on Fridays?

Do you find it worthwhile?

For those regularly making (some or all of) their livings by intraday trading, what proportion of your yearly/monthly comes from Friday trading, on average?

(90% of my income comes from Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with Monday's and Friday's remaining 10% mostly coming from Mondays.)

Alexa

Monday and Friday are normal day for me. Had a good run on eu last Friday caught the high of the day by risking very little (see the journal if you like).

I guess it all depends how you trade, your style may have those restrictions.

My style also have preferences, gives better results when used at the opening of the major hubs, due to increase volatility I find patterns and technicality more reliable to extend further. Of course only me.