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IMO, the best way to trade if you have a day job is to sell far out of the money options on futures such as crude oil, grains, metals, and coffee.
You will not need to be glued to a computer screen and worry about what you missed. But trading this way is very slow and boring. Often times, you will not need to make trades for days, even weeks. If set up correctly though, you have a more than decent chance at making excellent returns.
If you want to only be active at off hours, realize that volume and liquidity is usually less, and that may make things harder for you. Bad fills can kill an otherwise good system.
If you are holding during the day, your best bet are swing systems that hold for days to weeks.
Regardless of what you pick, you'll find it REALLY tough to resist the urge to check prices during the day. I know that was the case for me.
Futures and forex are leveraged, which means little moves can mean a lot of change to your account, which means you'll have that urge to peak during the day ("how's my account doing today? syndrome).
So, trade super small size, until you get used to the stress - the point where you can truly ignore things during the day.
I work 8:15 a.m. - 5:45 p.m. EST.
During my coffee break in the morning - 20-30 minutes somewhere between 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. - I do a quick analysis and set up my trade for that day.
Then during my lunch hour, which I can take anytime between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., I check the results of my trade, do my log-entry - and then eat my lunch, go for a walk around the block, or read a book.
Of course my trading strategy is tailored to that schedule; I don't know, if this would work on any platform other than the one I'm using.
I trade the daily Forex binaries on Nadex. There is no leverage, so I don't feel any "urge" to check.
Occasionally a trade that I set up during coffee break will not have closed yet by lunch-time. If that happens, I simply wait until I get home and then check and do my log-entry.
Think about those markets that would be actively traded while the US sleeps. The most obvious example to me are currency futures. The 6E is a prime example. If you review the charts, you will see that the activity of the 6E picks up in early morning US hours when Europe awakens.
wait until market reopen and you will always have the chance to scalp 1-2 points (sometimes more) for 6 hours, since i assume you will want to have a good rest to preserve your energy for your day job tomorrow
load up historical chart for yourself in your trading platform and you will see what i mean. decent volume for your need.
Untill you sell out of the money calls on oil and some bad news comes out of the middle east while you are working, oil shoots past your short call and you are forced to deliver at your call price, if you even have enough in your account to cover that.
As far as markets it all depends on what you want to trade, there is almost always something open. Just because you live in the U.S does not mean U.S markets are your only options. If you want to stay up and trade before bed there is the Austrailian or Asian markets. Or if you like getting up really early like 2 or 3 a.m. you can trade the Euro session which offers many good options.
You will have to do some research on what fits you best but I would not suggest trying to trade a U.S. market that has very little liquidity overnight. If you want to stay with the U.S. markets go with the 6E or 6B currencies which have a lot of movement in the Euro session when London opens.
