Daytrader; What's your daily routine?

Hey Guys!
I just wanted to know, what are you doing all day when the markets are open? Are you staring all day on your charts or are you opening 1 trade and let it do what it’ll do?
Also, what is your routine when you wake up and start your PC? Just want to know what different people are doing! :slight_smile:
Feel free to add your timezone and which session you’re trading in :slight_smile:

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Useful question! :slight_smile:

I am not a pure “day trader” but my trades usually last less than 24 hours.

My day starts with breakfast between the end of the far East session and the start of the London session.

I look at what has happened during my overnight since the NY close - the markets and the main news.
I then look at my charts to see where things are according to my strategy (which is based on hourly closes)
I then check the calendar for the today and the rest of the week.

After that I just resume “normal life” and just check in hourly whether anything significant has happened. When a signal is given, I enter at market, set my target and stop and let it run. I will continue to monitor trades hourly (and only on the hour) and sometimes I will close out if the trade is not performing as anticipated.

I only trade one instrument so it is a relaxed approach leaving plenty of time for other things. Having said that, there is usually at least one trade per day on an hourly time frame, sometimes two. But in between there are longish periods when there is no need for anything more than a cursory glance on the hour, for example, on my mobile, just to check-in.

Naturally, between the NY close and the London open, I am in dreamsville. I will leave trades open after the NY close if they have not been closed out already and are still looking healthy. I never leave anything open over the weekend.

That’s my routine :slight_smile:

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You’ve caught me at a time when after suffering consecutive losses, some my fault, and some I have no idea why, that my emotional control has been thoroughly tested, and to my surprise I feel free from anguish.

In fact, I feel like a whole heavy weight (expectations) has been taken off my back, and I’m again relishing the challenge. Which means doing what I do best, and that’s competing with what the market throws at me from the moment I start my day to when I close mid-afternoon.

Sure, results matter, but being carefree - heck, I’m still alive and kicking - is an enjoyable and happy event. I control my risk exposure to a minimal outlay per day, and that’s my holy grail.

So to answer your question, I take a trade or two and let it take care of itself. I’ve followed my process to the letter, and it’s up to the Daily or 4hr time frame - and for amusement, the 5m scalping chart for 10 minutes or so to test my reaction time when the DAX opens. That’s like a Fast and Furious movie.

Take care everyone, I’m cool.

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Hi,
Interesting question. When the markets are open (24 x 5.5) I am normally doing anything else except trading. I do all my planning, preparing setups and placing limit orders outside of my UK working day. Forex is a strong interest but I try not to spend more than one hour per day in total on the subject. By the way, I have placed about one trade per month the last 3 months and regard a “busy time” as about five trades per week.

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What a great question I used to wonder what other traders are doing on their day to day life especially for those who trade full time. …

So as a day trader here is my routine…

My timezone is GMT+2 so I wake up 3hrs before the London open and take 1hr to have a shower, breakfast, etc the then about 30 minutes just look at my economic calendar just to see which pairs I have to be careful of… Another 30 mins to analyze the chart I use 2 weeks (bigger picture), 3 days VWAP (short term) and trendlines to confirm if there is any trend building up and yes Fibonacci to confirm reversals…

Mind you; yes I check the calendar not because I want to trade the news but to know what to expect on specific pairs coz I mainly focus on GU… I use correlation to analyze what might happen to GU

I then wait for London to open (I don’t open any trades before London open) once I have my confirmations I set my pending orders or instant orders wirh TP and SL and close my charts… i will only check the charts on every 4hr close to see whether I should close or hold my trades since my SL is always 20pips…

if it happens I have a SL I will set more pending orders or instant orders if confirmed because my strategy allows me to risk 60pips/day which I divided into 3 trades. Incase of a TP I usually call it a day cause I have family to give attention to but if they are not around I really don’t have anything to do so I try look for another setup since the I don’t owe the market anything…

Other than these times I mentioned it’s either am watching a movie, studying or and doing something else or I go out and just check my progress on the phone

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I think it’s different for everyone.
Some spend their search for the moment during the day.
Some focus on specific news items.

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My routine is simple l trade the London and New York session when l wake up l just pray look at the calendar and then bath afterwards l dive in the charts to look for setups if there is something that catches my eye l execute the trade and monitor it hourly.My maximum trade l can take per these session is three trades and l call it a day and if there are no setups that l like l call it a day. I can spend my day just getting updates on market news that’s all

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Actually, daily routine depends on the notion “routine”. Some daytraders can state that routine implies graphic analysis and searching for suitable asset. However, for me, personally, the real routine is to edit trading strategy. I guess that it’s so actual for daytraders as they always have to edit, test and rebuild their strategies, because the market nowadays is so unpredictable and it’s getting harder and harder to read graphics. In my opinion, everything depends on traders’ attitude towards this daily routine, in case you take it for granted and know that it leads you to result, then, probably, you can’t name such actions as routine.

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Strongly agree with this buddy!

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No chance I would spend all day on the charts. I mark up aeas of interest SUnday nights and then set alerts

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Trading trading and trading but only on weekdays. :smile:

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Exercise (Running only)
Breakfast
Read market
Prepare trading plan
Trading (till daily goal not achieved)
Family time
Dinner
Reading a book
Sleep

This what I have.

Never realized I am so much busy.

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Daily routine of every daytrader is to check news, looking at the graphics and learn them actually. You spend lots of time on looking at the graphics in order to find some indicators. You should higher time frames, lower time frames and other things in order to find triangle or something like that. Of course, the vast majority of daytraders use oscialltors and other indicators in order to ease trading activity for them. In my opinion, daily routine is such a thing which you can’t notice because it becomes routine for you. So, the main idea is to check all the graphics and find the proper currency pairs or assets for trading.

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Are you a full-time trader? :open_mouth:

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Fortunately Yes!, Pandemic shows me the worst side, thank full to God :innocent:

Oh wow, that’s awesome. How long have you been a full-time trader?

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I think 3 years now, full time only 1 and half year. What about you?

Where do you look at the ‘main news’? Do you mean main forex news or main national news?

Both types of news.

There is the specific type of news relating to economic releases, etc and then there is the global event calendar with upcoming events such as central bank meetings, OPEC meetings, G7 summits, etc. Beyond that one can usually identify whatever is the “flavour of the day” in sentiment terms, for example, at present the US markets are watching inflation risk and central bank tapering.

The general idea is just to identify what news is likely to be especially relevant to the markets one is watching. Sometimes this might encourage a trade position and at other times might discourage entering until after an event, e.g. ahead of the US monthly Non-farm payrolls data release.

Sniper style!!! I like it!

And about how long do they last? What time frame?