What pair, what time frame?

Beginner Questions
#1

I live in south london and will only get the chance to trade after I finish work from 7pm (GMT) to the early hours of the following morning depending on how tired I am.

What sort of trading timeframe would be recommended based on these hours? I am concerned that intraday trading may be a risky place for me to start but then I am worried about how I would manage positions over several days if I am at work.

Also what is the best or most liquid pair to trade during these hours?

Apologies if any of the questions above are deemed stupid.

#2

First you shouldn’t really worry to much about how liquid the market is going to be when you are trading. With your trading schedule I believe you should be trading on the weekly, daily, and 4h. So if your trading hours so happen to line up with a close or opening of a market I would suggest you pursue such pairs. So that way you can see end of day data to make your decisions.

I purely trade off the daily and some 4h and I will get a few big moves a year, but that is all I need. Do you think waiting months and months for either a trading opportunity or riding out a winner would suit you?

I have learned from experience, don’t let trading dictate your life, let your life dictate your trading. That lesson I learned has improved my trading so much!

Just something to think about, get back to us with what you come up with :slight_smile:

#3

Thanks for the advice.
When you put it like that I think the time frame of weekly/daily/4h now seems like an obvious place for me to start. :o I totally agree that I would not want to be sitting on trades for months. I need to spend a few minutes getting my head round the different time zones but will post again when I have made a decision on which pair or pairs to focus on.

#4

I wansn’t trying to imply that keeping a position for months is a bad thing. In fact that would be ideal for my trading plan and the time I can committee to trading. My best set ups will last for months :slight_smile:

If you want to swing trade (few days to a few weeks) on positions then you may want to focus entry from off thw 4h. This way you can trade with your time restraints and yet perhaps not be as longer term like my thinking.

#5

Nothing stupid about those questions…
Have a look at this (trading hours of all the sessions)
Basically, 7pm till midnight BST are quiet for trading - tail end of the US session and beginning of the Oz. Ie, there isn’t much movement when you’re looking to trade.
But I reckon you’re better off looking to find the pair you prefer then find ways of trading it. Low spreads, trendiness and high amounts of movement are all important factors to give yourself a fighting chance, so I go for GBPUSD & EURUSD. If you know your stops levels and exits before you enter, there’s no reason why you can’t set your trades up before you go to work.
Good luck. And if you can’t resist trading intraday, master Alt+tab so your boss can’t see you messing about when you should be working!

#6

Thanks for the link triphop. Unfortunately as you say it seems my personal ideal trading hours are probably as far from ideal in reality as they could be. Its a shame as if I wasn’t working I could trade during what appear to be the best hours (US/UK overlap).
I agree that the alt-tab key could come in useful at work. :slight_smile: I think it would be possible to at least keep an eye on my trades during the day and I suppose with a decent stop loss strategy not too stressful.
I must say I am attracted to the idea of day trading but I think based on my current working commitments and your comments I would be better off analysing the market during the evening and trying to find slightly longer term setups. I think Swordsofrue’s advice on the 4hour sounds good. Ok now I feel I have a better idea of my time frame its now time to focus on a strategy :confused: … have a feeling I am the start of a very long and windy road :slight_smile: