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Can profitable active trades be made in ES after market hours?
I am an aspiring trader with a job during market hours. Can the ES be actively traded, or day traded, after the stock markets closed or does it require actual movement of the S&P 500? If not can commodities and forex?
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
All of those are 24 hour markets so they can all be traded after market hours. The index futures follow overseas markets when the cash market is closed.
I trade ES after market hours - the main thing you need to consider is liquidity and volatility.
US Central time:
3:30pm to about 2:30 am - Asian session, which has terrible volumes, about 30 lots per minute and is untradeable unless you scalp.
2:30am to 8:30am - Europe session, which has much better volumes coming into the US open. From 200 up to 800 lots per minute coming into the close.
Best times to trade if you want volatility outside of normal hours is 6:30am to 8:30am for European close or 2:30am to 4:30am for European open.
You might be better off trading a currency depending if those times don't suit.
That's what I was thinking might be the case. Im planning on only trading one contract to start until I show myself I can be profitable so scalping is probably out of the question. I will look into the currencies. I guess the next step is to subscribe to ninjatrader so I can watch live feeds and scope out the different markets action at my preferred time 6:00 pm-10:00 pm US eastern time. I appreciate you taking the time to answer.
Check out AMP Futures before you purchase a NT license, they offer free trials of most platforms with live CQG data.
Regarding trading the ETH periods, PeakGrowth covered the main points, but i would add there are some edges to be found in the Asian session if you do your homework, specifically look for large volatility in the RTH and a reversion after hours. You wouldn't "actively" trade this though, It is a trade I open at the start of the ETH session and close before Euro market opens. Maybe getting a entry signal avg~2 times a week.
I've seen this edge too, the market can move continuously in 1 direction for about 8 hours but if there was ever a literal parallel for watching paint dry, this period is it.
How is the 6E/7E @amoeba? I assume you trade almost the exact same times I do, which is somewhere between 5pm and 12am AEST
Yeah, it is possibly the slowest way to make a few points profit.
Same edge does appear in the 6E, also CL. Only thing I have found in the 6E is the bias towards shorts after Euro open, you can literally make a strategy only using shorts; here is one that either shorts on IB low break, or shorts on IB high break. All closing before RTH open. Quite trade-able, even without any advanced entry or trade management.
