How do US west coast traders stay awake? | Forex Factory

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trading on west coast 6 replies

How do US west coast traders stay awake?

  • #1
  • First Post: Aug 20, 2011 12:08am Aug 20, 2011 12:08am
How fo you stay awake for the Frankfurt open to London close?

Or do you just work only the NY session?

or Tokyo?
  • #2
  • Aug 20, 2011 12:23am Aug 20, 2011 12:23am
I get up at 4:45 am for NY Session. Tried trading London couple times but that didn't work out.

Yea the timezone diffidently not the best for trading.

google
  • #3
  • Edited 1:14am Aug 20, 2011 12:48am | Edited 1:14am
If you have a day job or career or if you are just not a night person then pacific time zone is problematic. An obvious solution is to learn to trade the longer tf's.

As a spot fx scalper what I do is trade around 2200 to 0030, then catch a nice long nap until the NYO, then get an hour or so of screen time then. If I am trading futures I get to bed by 2230 and wake up for the NY session.

In my first year of daytrading I tried to scalp for an hour or so around all three opens. Not good, spread too thin, adverse effects on health due to disrupted sleep patterns.

Then I discovered I didn't care if I skipped Tokyo altogether, and that if I had to choose, that the London/NY overlap was the best time to be in the game. Then I learned to swing trade, so that screen time trade schedule is somewhat less critical.

So yeah, PST sucks, but if there's a will there's a way.
"If The Fool persists in his Folly he will become wise." - William Blake
  • #4
  • Aug 20, 2011 2:16am Aug 20, 2011 2:16am
Quoting The Fool
If you have a day job or career or if you are just not a night person then pacific time zone is problematic. An obvious solution is to learn to trade the longer tf's.

As a spot fx scalper what I do is trade around 2200 to 0030, then catch a nice long nap until the NYO, then get an hour or so of screen time then. If I am trading futures I get to bed by 2230 and wake up for the NY session.

In my first year of daytrading I tried to scalp for an hour or so around all three opens. Not good, spread too thin, adverse effects on health due to disrupted...
Just to reiterate what The Fool said, if you have a day job its nearly impossible to catch the major sessions. If you are willing to put the effort in to staying up extremely late or waking up extremely early you may come to find that it can become quite profitable... as long as you know what you're doing of course.

As for myself I've been more or less nocturnal since i got out of highschool
(3 years ago).
  • #5
  • Aug 20, 2011 2:25am Aug 20, 2011 2:25am
Quoting watchtower4x
How fo you stay awake for the Frankfurt open to London close?

Or do you just work only the NY session?

or Tokyo?
Sometimes my head will about slam on the desk....I then go to bed.

But seriously..Swing trades as much as possible and let them run. If I am very alert I will stay awake for the first two hours of London. But I keep in consideration my schedule of work for the next day. Shoot it is 12:30 am now, my body is so used to staying up that even a Friday night I am looking at quiet charts.

Now if I was a young single guy on a Friday night looking at charts, I would expect someone to kick my ass away from the computer and go out to a pub or something. Maybe do some belt buckle polishing.

Rufus
Illegitimi non carborundum - Noli pati a scelestis opprimi.
  • #6
  • Aug 20, 2011 2:41am Aug 20, 2011 2:41am
Quoting The Fool
If you have a day job or career or if you are just not a night person then pacific time zone is problematic. An obvious solution is to learn to trade the longer tf's.

As a spot fx scalper what I do is trade around 2200 to 0030, then catch a nice long nap until the NYO, then get an hour or so of screen time then. If I am trading futures I get to bed by 2230 and wake up for the NY session.

In my first year of daytrading I tried to scalp for an hour or so around all three opens. Not good, spread too thin, adverse effects on health due to disrupted...
I'm a natural 2am to 9am sleeper....

Moving to Bangkok/Hongkong/Mumbai where Frankfurt/London open would be at a delicious 1pm in the afternoon sounds easier than staying up late/getting up early....
  • #7
  • Aug 20, 2011 2:49am Aug 20, 2011 2:49am
Hey guys, hate to be you West Coast traders, so bad!

Someone posted this idea on a different site:

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders...till-be-simple

Basically the theory goes that each individual has roughly a 90 minute sleep cycle, if you wake up during the 90 minutes, you'll feel groggy and tired generally unproductive. You should sleep in multiple of 90 minutes, for example 180 min (3hrs), 270 min (4.5hrs) etc... but you must wake up after these multiples. When you do this then you should feel "awake and more energetic".

I just read this article recently so I haven't tried it yet, but I guess no harm in trying taking a ninety minute nap before Europe opens up.

Let us know how it goes if you try it.
  • #8
  • Aug 20, 2011 3:39am Aug 20, 2011 3:39am
Quoting pa18
Basically the theory goes that each individual has roughly a 90 minute sleep cycle, if you wake up during the 90 minutes, you'll feel groggy and tired generally unproductive. You should sleep in multiple of 90 minutes, for example 180 min (3hrs), 270 min (4.5hrs) etc... but you must wake up after these multiples. When you do this then you should feel "awake and more energetic".
Cool. I have spent alot of time examining the way that I sleep because I practice lucid dreaming and I can tell you that there is alot to this idea. You have to experiment though because your cycles will change through the night and also with the seasons.

However, after playing around with that for many years I do know one thing: you just get worn out if you don't get good sleep. You need it and you probably shave years off your life if you don't get it habitually.
"If The Fool persists in his Folly he will become wise." - William Blake
  • #9
  • Aug 20, 2011 3:59am Aug 20, 2011 3:59am
Just curious ... what the heck is " ... practice lucid dreaming"?

I agree you need solid sleep so there is always the weekend.

Also I also agree everyone is different so you need to experiment and find what is your sleep cycle --- seasonal? That's a thought.

If OP clearly has his/her heart set on trading Frankfurt, then try my suggestion, better than taking pills
  • #10
  • Aug 20, 2011 7:56am Aug 20, 2011 7:56am
Quoting pa18
Just curious ... what the heck is " ... practice lucid dreaming"?
You're trying to become aware while in a dream. The idea is that if you can realize you're in a dream then you can manipulate the dream. Some people just do it for fun while others use it to try to work through problems. I personally have never had success but it sounds pretty cool.
  • #11
  • Last Post: Aug 25, 2011 8:05am Aug 25, 2011 8:05am
Quoting IanMH
You're trying to become aware while in a dream. The idea is that if you can realize you're in a dream then you can manipulate the dream. Some people just do it for fun while others use it to try to work through problems.
Is that your trading method?
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