Time of Day To Day Trade

Time of Day To Day Trade
By: Larry Swing

Day traders are a special breed of animals from the investors and swing or position traders. To them, there is a routine throughout the day they notice and take advantage of them. Each segment of the trading hours has special meaning. When it comes trading, these traders know when they are at their best and when they will not make a dime.

Floor traders are the best at knowing the routine of the market. The same human nature shows up in the everyday life. Humans love routine, even the people who are never do the same things twice or abhor normalcy and ordinary, they do have their own routine in another aspect of their life. So even in trading, the stocks and exchanges show their similarities day after day, even in a chaotic world in financial markets, there are subtleties that help these traders profit from the markets.

Here are some of the known facts about markets in general:

1. Volume - Most of the participation are around the opening and the closing hours of the day's session, especially on days where there are economic or company news pending. The more important the economic news, the more the volume, such as Federal Reserve meetings. Volume and volatility increases exponentially.

2. Price - There are certain prices where traders will participate in large numbers such as new highs or new lows. These areas come to be support or resistance, driving more traders into the fray. When these prices are near, expect this action to become routine.

3. Time - Different times of the trading hours bring different types of volatility and traders. Opening and closings see many day traders entering and exiting the markets while half way in the session will see less day traders as lunch time brings quiet time. The day is usually divided into 60 minute increments (hence the popular use of the 60-minute charts by day and swing traders). These time slots mark an important routine of the day. For example, the first 60 minutes show high volume with many emotional buying and selling to due market imbalance caused by news before the market opening. The second 60-minutes usually see the volume decreasing. This time slot also determines the direction of the market for the dayâ''either continuing the direction set by the first 60 minutes or reversing the direction. The last hour also give clues to the following day. But due to news interrupting overnight momentum, it's more difficult to use it as an indicator.

4. Day of the week - Depending on the day of the week where swing traders may initiate their positions at the beginning of the week and exit at the end of the week. For others, watching the beginning of the week to see the tone of the markets that may play out the rest of the week. In doing so, the day traders may observe and trade according the week. Mondays tends to be low in volume as the weekend slowly fades bringing traders back to their work. Wednesdays tend to find the tone for the rest of the week with a trending day. Fridays tend to reverse on the entire week's direction. Many swing and day traders will usually exit their positions, taking profits made from the week's gains.

5. Month - The beginning and end of the month provides more volatility than in between. Why? Accounting purposes, perhaps, where institutions maneuver their assets. There is tendency for volume to appear greater at the first few days of the month as well as the last few days of the month with more conviction in the direction. September and October lately have become the turning point of the markets, changing directions, especially from downtrend to uptrend. The crashes in recent history have taken place in these two months and tend to be the lows of the year.

6. Season - In general, the summer provides the least liquidity due to people in general going on vacation. During the rest of the year, there healthy volume sustains the trend. During the fall just up until Christmas will see a rise in volume and bullish trends.

These are routines that should not be taken lightly. They do exist and finding them can be a long arduous process. Once found, the trader will have an edge in profiting from the inefficiency of the markets.