Trading all over the world. (Damn, now I have 3 chords stuck in my head).

[options]

Okay, haven't been able to find anything like this on here. It it does exist it will most likely only cover market hours. I know I myself have put one up that covered fx market times.

Something slightly different then. Everyone knows that fx is a 24 hour market, Sunday night to Friday evening UK time. But any market has its liquid and not so liquid moments. And a lot of people cannot trade at opportune time because of other commitments.

Here follows a by no means comprehensive list of best trading times for the major indices.
Indices such as the south african have been omitted because there is not enough liquidity.

All times are GB times.

Aus 200: 1am with reversals/consolidation often at 7am, then at 12pm-1pm

Jap 225: 1am. Reversals around 7am

Hong Kong: Big moves starting at 2am. Reversals at 7am, but gaps on my chart for the 6am slot.

UK, Dax, Cac etc: If you don't know the best times to trade these, then perhaps you shouldn't be trading. Open and usa open of course.

Dow, S&P: Of course around 2pm with reversals/consolidation around 7pm. Interestingly large moves from 8 am are not uncommon.

Silver: Which at the moment looks set for a big move. 1pm and 4 pm

Hopefully there will be something there for everyone to trade.

Does anyone here trade the UK sectors? I had a brief look at a few of the charts while compiling this short list. And the banks look good to trade. Anyone have any favourites or seasonal trades?

Are there any markets and times I have missed out?

 

[grantx]

Options,

Interesting.

Got me thinking, and being deprived of sunshine here in the UK (unlike some) I thought I’d do some basic research into the best period to trade the Stoxx future on EUREX (high volume/liquidity).

In my limited experience, the European indices – DAX, Stoxx – generally seem to go to sleep after 5:00pm (UK).

I looked at the figures (derived from 60-minute high-low-close and volume) for June to Friday 15th covering the last eleven trading days.

First I divided each day into the following time periods (UK):

9:00 – 14:00 (just before Wall Street open). European trading ex US.

14:00 – 17:00. European trading inc US but to approximate end of European working day.

17:00 – 21:00. End of European working day to close of European futures and Wall Street.

I also included 9:00 – 17:00 as representative of only European trading.

(The time periods may appear arbitrary given one can trade a long day – 07:00 – 21:00 for the bund, for example - but I believe this is exceptional.)

The results are as follows:

9:00 – 14:00. 42% of volume, 64% of price range

14:00 – 17:00. 62% of volume, 59% of price range

17:00 – 21:00. 11% of volume, 51% of price range

9:00 – 17:00 84% of volume, 89% of price range.

(Tentative) Conclusion: if you believe in the primacy of volume, trade 9-5, otherwise trade a leisurely 4 hours in the evening.

Attached is the Excel data file.

Grant.

 

[options]

Blimey Grant, Thanks for putting all the time and effort into that.

All I did was look at the hourly bars divided into days so I could spot the periods where there was more liquidity/movement.

I'm so low tech it isn't true.

 

[fibonelli]

superb piece of analytical work by grantx

 

[grantx]

Options and Fibonelli,

Thank you for compliments, gentleman – never fails to lift the spirit.

I deliberately left the first hour’s volume out of the equations, the reason being it usually represents a massive volume partly due (I’m guessing) to orders entered into the system the previous evening but failed to execute prior to close. However, I will look into this to see if it holds any clues as to subsequent moves.

“I'm so low tech it isn't true.” I’m so sad, I did the work and then went to Tesco.

Only Loleatta Holloway (with Fire Island) song I have is “Shout to the top” (originally Paul Weller but better). Brilliant.

Good trading, gentlemen.

Grant.