Best Days To Trade?

[Robert 10]

Are there days when a trader should stay flat and not trade at all? I find Fridays a hard day to trade. Is anyone having a similar problem?

[Soultrader 12]

I dont think there is any single day easier than the others. I personally find it easier in the morning session so I choose to be aggressive and more conservative in the afternoons.

 

Just stay away from the doldrums on Fridays though... its just not worth it.

[ant 10]

When I started daytrading part-time, I had asked Linda Raschke the following question:

 

Are there more/better trading opportunities in the S&P in the morning session (9:30am to 1pm), in the afternoon session (1pm to 4:15pm), or is it about the same? I am working on setting up my work schedule for my other job based on this information. I will also only be able to trade a half day for 3 days out of the week. Any insight as to which 3 days would be best?

 

Here is Linda Rashke's response:

 

Definitely the best day-trading opportunity comes in the morning session - this is when you will get the most countertrend type of movement (swings in both directions). Also, morning reversals are more common then afternoon reversals as well. The great majority of daytraders tend to make most of their money in the morning session. Monday and Fridays are the lightest volume days of the week - so if I had to choose just three days to trade, it would be Tues, - Thursday. Next choice would be Monday - Wednesday.

 

I chose to trade the morning sessions on Tues, Wed, and Thurs. From empirical observation, I would agree with her response.

[protrader 10]

since 1953 S&P daily percentages of times market closed higher than previous day (1953- july 2005)

 

monday 47.2%

tuesday 51.2%

wednesday 55.8%

thursday 52.2%

friday 56.6%

 

Also have read recently that most traders are having best results tuesdays and thursdays.

[MrPaul 10]

since 1953 S&P daily percentages of times market closed higher than previous day (1953- july 2005)

 

monday 47.2%

tuesday 51.2%

wednesday 55.8%

thursday 52.2%

friday 56.6%

 

Also have read recently that most traders are having best results tuesdays and thursdays.

 

hey protrader,

 

Do you happen to have access to S&P daily percentages of times market closed Lower than previous day?

Thanks

[ant 10]

MrPaul,

 

The number of days that were no change from the previous day is close to zero. So just subtract the numbers above from 100 to get the percentages of lower closes. The data below is for Jan. 1960 to Present. Results are close to 50-50, so not sure how to capitalize on that data. If anyone wants the TradeStation code to do this, let me know and I'll post it.

 

Percentage of Up Days:

Monday: 46.48%

Tuesday: 51.99%

Wednesday: 56.45%

Thursday: 52.33%

Friday: 54.66%

======

Percentage of Down Days:

Monday: 48.98%

Tuesday: 49.45%

Wednesday: 44.57%

Thursday: 47.50%

Friday: 44.61%

======

Percentage of NoChange Days:

Monday: 0.38%

Tuesday: 0.68%

Wednesday: 0.59%

Thursday: 0.76%

Friday: 0.64%

[MrPaul 10]

thanks Ant:)

[protrader 10]

thanks for the answer mrpaul

[protrader 10]

sorry thanks ant

[Soultrader 12]

Here is Linda Rashke's response:

 

Definitely the best day-trading opportunity comes in the morning session - this is when you will get the most countertrend type of movement (swings in both directions). Also, morning reversals are more common then afternoon reversals as well. The great majority of daytraders tend to make most of their money in the morning session. Monday and Fridays are the lightest volume days of the week - so if I had to choose just three days to trade, it would be Tues, - Thursday. Next choice would be Monday - Wednesday.

 

I definitely agree with her on this comment. I find the morning session the best time to trade as well as Tues, Wed, and Thurs. Mondays are not bad either... Fridays I find very unattractive.

 

I make most of my money in the opening 60 minutes... lately I hardly trade the afternoon.

[grandwiz 10]

Do anyone of you guys trade during options expiration week or expiration Fridays?

[torero 10]

I find using non-time charts such as volume or tick charts help forget about the doldrums or no volume areas. This goes for overnight price action. Prices are moved by volume not by time. So I see time-based more meaningful in higher time (day or higher) because it a natural separation periods. Although there are beliefs that time influence prices (10:00am, 2pm, etc), but it's more volume moving pricing, not time. People use time as a cue but it's still volume making the difference.

 

If you ever watch the lunch hour bars in tick charts, you hardly noticed the difference from the open or closing hours except maybe the range is smaller. But those bars is within range of larger bars in opening and closing hours. It shows you shouldn't be trading in that area anyway since it's small range. Just IMHO.

 

Here's the comparison:

 

 

 

The 2min chart shows a faint double-bottom, hardly see it. But on 200 tick, the double-bottom is more pronounced.

 

And at the beginning of the shaded gray box, there is movement upward before dropping to 2B area. On 2min chart you can see the smoothed pivots, on 200 ticks, the pivots were more pronounced. This helps me see higher highs/high lows and lower highs/lower lows much better. If you can see the pivots, I easily draw trendlines to mark the trend, on 2 min, it's a bit more difficult (check the red trendlines).

 

Of course, I welcome disagreements to this argument;)