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I hope not to take too much of anyone's time here, but I would like to use this thread to gather input/feedback on those that trade after-hours. I've attempted to locate a good index to practice on, but have had little luck. If anyone has any advice, it would be much appreciated. If there is already a thread started on the forum, and I have missed it, I appologize. Look forward to all the feedback.
Why would you want to do that?
I guess that if you have a strategy that works then you might maybe, but just maybe consider doing that. The biggest problem with the after hours is the lack of a clean order book, and the lack of a clean and fair volatility. And those are just a few of the things to mention. When you see the big moves, those are due to new information coming into the market. What the market does then is to readjust. But trust me the moves are kind of more chaotic then normal.
If, you by chance refer to after hours meaning, to trade the Asian markets, then by all means chose an instrument that's correlated to those markets in order to get the right input.
I haven't traded those markets ever. But I'm trading what you'd refer to as the pre-market. Because I live in Europe. For i.e. the YM is moving a lot slower and with less quantity in the order book. If the European markets are moving big, then it will follow.
But you have to understand that the traders trading it, are not the core traders that normally are included in the market. Think of it as some sort of substitutes.
I've looked at trading many instruments during Asian session as it would be the most conducive to my time zone (Pacific) but unfortunately I have yet to find anything that trades well in the after hours. Earliest time I've seen that you can start trading virtually anything is 10 pm PST but ideally not until 12 am PST. Just my two cents.
I trade the 6A and 6J in the evenings and in then in the early am (2-6am EST) I trade the 6b and 6E. Most of the time the evening sessions can be like watching paint dry, but occassionally there are some good moves. Volume is always light, though.
Thanks for all the advice and input. I agree that most markets don't serve well after hours because of the volatility and lack of liquidity. However, I think that the Asian session might serve the purpose that I am looking for. I am located on the East Coast, so I have to take that into consideration as well.
This week, I'll take a look at a few Asian markets and see how things go. If anyone else has any feedback, keep it coming!
There are lots a people who trade "after hours", US cash hours are the most liquid for US listed products, but the rest of the world needs to speculate and hedge in their own time zone and currency as well. Your cash hours are my bedtime, dude .
The Asia morning (12 hours AHEAD of EST) sees Australia and Tokyo open, followed by Singapore, Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan (not in that order). There are people in the region that trade just these markets and make a living. And run funds.
Europe opens during the Asian afternoon, and that brings in a bit more vol/vega to Asia and usually adds liquidity to the US listed products. I've traded ZN and ES during the European morning and had little issue getting decent fills, though I've been reluctant to do that during Asian hours. For currency futures the Yen and Aussie are probably good during Asian hours as there are some hedgers using CME products in the game at that time. I don't do that, but many do.
There are lots of big, liquid markets outside of the US. Moving forward, that will continue to be the case. Think Regulatory Arbitrage.
I started out on the Hang Seng. It is a fantastic market to trade. Better than Dow and ES possibly. The only problem is finding a good way to access the market from North America.