trading time limitations

[tonog]

Hello all,

I am in the middle of formulating my trading strategy and plan. Because I am a student, one thing that puts limitations on my trading is the time. So with that said and done, I plan on trading only during the times 730-1030am EST. Since its a pretty simple strategy, my exiting strategy will either be my stop being met (10 pips below entry), profit target met, or trading time ending. If the trading time ends, I will use another 10 minutes to close all positions. My question is: is this a good time to trade (as in lots of volitility) and are my exit strategies sound? I realize it is much harder to figure out an exit than an entry strategy. I basically have class from 11am-6pm with an extra 2 hours of study time. Any other 3 hour slots good for trading? All comments welcome

thanks in advance.

[Rhody Trader]

Actually, that's a pretty good trading time frame. It's the overlap of the London and New York market days. Lots of volume, and good volatility. Many of the bigger data releases happen in that time horizon.

[tonog]

thanks rhody for your input!

[Jerseydevil]

Tonog - I posted a chart in another thread that shows average trading ranges for the 4 majors:

http://www.moneytec.com/forums/showp...21&postcount=2

Your trading time is right in the volatile area. Should be good. Good luck. I hope to join you in the live ranks soon.

[Soheilsb]

I think that 10 pip stop loss is a little too small, having a stoploss is a MUST, but a 10 pip stop has it's own problems (eg. broker's price changings) which may harm you more than it favors you.
and right or wrong , I myself prefer not to trade in the news realeasing times, cause if you are an intraday trader, the big reaction to the news(when it is in the opposite side of your open trade) can be a big misfortune , cause it will surely get to your stop loss position and you will get out of the market.

[tonog]

jersey, thanks...that chart was very helpful!

sohelisb, i agree with you that the stop loss being a little bit too small. Because i have a small amount of risk capital ($1000) i tried devising a strategy that allows for 1) good money mgmt and 2) allows me profitable opp. according to those money mgmt principles. I only plan on risking about $10 per trade, and aim for $30 per trade in accordance with the 3:1 reward:risk ratio. My strategy normally signals 30 pip gains as I don't really care for large #'s of pips (the money will take care of itself later=)) I also don't want to risk too much since ive heard nothing but bad things about being under capitalized on the forums.

What are you takes on this?

thanks for all the input everyone!

[Soheilsb]

tonog,
your account size is 1000$ or you dont want to risk more than 1000$ on any trade!! ? So if you have a 1000$ account, I think you have to trade an e-mini account or if your broker's trading software accepts it , you have to put 0.1 lots instead of 1 lots. stoploss of 10$ means just 1 pip away from your entry point, and that's again way toooo small. but in mini acount it's 10 pips away, and your take profit of 30$ per trade means 30 pips in a mini account and 3 pips in a regular.
again if that's the situation, I think your stop-loss is not a good idea , considering the volatile times of the market you want to trade in.

Regards

[tonog]

Soheilsb,

Sorry I forgot to mention that I will be trading a mini account. so that would be risking no more than $10/trade. Though this is miniscule, I'm trading a demo account with $1000 to make everything as close to the real thing as possible. Right now I'm trying to make it where every detail during my trading time is the same, so that I can spot reasons why I made losing trades quickly and remedy them accordingly. So, with that said, I will be risking $10 hoping to make $30. That may be too small, but I'm willing to blow a couple of demo accounts making changes to the strategy in order find a profitable strategy that works with my "scalping" trades.

Though this is beside the point, In your experience, how often have you had to scrap a system because it was no longer profitable in the past year or two?

thanks