Out of Hours Activity/Volatility with Mini-Dow

[carltonp 10]

Hello Traders,

 

I'm thinking about trading the Mini-Dow (and may be the e-mini) out of normal trading hours. Can I please get your opinion on the type of activity/volatility I can expect?

 

I fully appreciate that neither the mini-dow or emini are going to be as active out-of-hours as they are during normal trading hours.

 

I would love to hear from traders that trade these instruments electronically out-of-hours and what times they have found to be most active.

 

I'm based in England so its not always going to be easy for me to trade 14:30pm to 9pm GMT - which is 9:30 am - 4:00pm EST

 

I really appreciate your suggestions.

 

Cheers

 

P.S.

 

I'm popping out for a while so I won't be able to answer any questions you may have immediately, however I will answer your questions when I get back to my desk.

 

Carlton

[carltonp 10]

Wow, I'm surprised no one has replied with any comments/suggestions

[Tams 20]

Wow, I'm surprised no one has replied with any comments/suggestions

 

what do you think is the reason?

[MadMarketScientist 11]

I was watching a Mirus\Ninja webinar about strategies for trading around midnight EST. The idea was there is so little activity that if prices get outside of a range (bollinger bands), it made good entry points as the price would revert back to the mean very quickly . They backtested and it 'appeared' to work but not very often, maybe once every other week or so only.

 

MMS

[carltonp 10]

what do you think is the reason?

 

I learned a long time ago that is no such thing as dumb questions .... someone somewhere at sometime had to ask the questions.

 

The dumb thing is not asking the question in the first place for fear of being rebuked, or fear of being made to look a fool.

[MadMarketScientist 11]

carltonp - No question is dumb, here is more info about the webinar I was talking about.

 

"Join Greg Adams, founder of Trade Coach, for this webinar event exploring how the E-mini SP500 price action behaves itself at 11:00 pm, midnight and 1:00 am in the morning.

 

If trading in the middle of the night is not for you, Greg will provide detailed information on how to automate your trading plan so you do not have to be around your computer when the trading opportunity you are after arises.

 

The ES is the most liquid E-mini futures contract open 23.25 hours a day, 5 days a week. Midnight in the US is an interesting time because, in theory, not much should be going on with the ES contract at that time. In Australia, it is early afternoon, Asia is starting to wrap things up, and Europe has not yet opened. However, sometimes there is plenty going on at this time as this webinar examines."

 

Archived Trading Webinars | Mirus Futures

 

MMS

[carltonp 10]

MMS,

 

That is great mate.

 

Can also get information on mini-dow from the website you mentioned above?

 

The main reason I asked the question was because I've been doing extremely well trading the mini-dow. My style of trading involves assessing the strenth of the 30 stocks that comprise the DJIA and buying, say, two mini-dow contracts when the strength of my trading system and 30 stocks are moving in the direction of my entry point.

 

Now, clearly I won't be ability to make any realistic assessment on the strength of the 30 stocks at, say midnight, or indeed anytime outside normal trading hours. However, by what you've mentioned on the liquidity of the e-mini, if that also applies to the mini-dow, would I be correct in saying that I need not worry too much about not being able to use price movement on stocks outside trading hours to help with my decision to purchase a e-mini or mini-dow contract.

 

Also, thanks for mentioning, agreeing that there is no such thing as a dumb question.

 

Cheers mate....

[MadMarketScientist 11]

This whole idea is around the fact that during these off-hours, things should not be happening ... so if something does, then there is an opportunity. So if the mini-dow is less liquid, I would think this theory applies even more to it. A potential problem might be that these occurrences probably happen even less. Watch the seminar, they walk through setting the whole backtest up in Ninja.

 

MMS

[carltonp 10]

MMS

 

I looking to forward to checking it out.

 

Thanks

[Tams 20]

I learned a long time ago that is no such thing as dumb questions .... someone somewhere at sometime had to ask the questions.

 

The dumb thing is not asking the question in the first place for fear of being rebuked, or fear of being made to look a fool.

 

I don't think any member here would dis a so called "dumb" question.

maybe in another board, but not this one.