What pairs to trade in NSW night?

[StockyGuy]

Hi All,

I'm still stuffing around with my AvaTrader demo account at the moment. Maybe some of the experienced could save me painful trial and error with my next FOREX question

I live in Sydney and work full time. It would be feasible for me to scalp from, say, 7PM till 1AM, Monday to Friday, EST. There are so many bloody pairs to choose from! Given those time parameters, what currency pairs tend to be most volatile? Is there a day or couple of days that are even more conducive to the quick scalp? Having got my demo account I found there's almost too much choice. I need to try to narrow down the hotspots before risking any of the "hard earned!"

In sum, what are, ON AVERAGE, the most volatile pairs 7PM to 1AM, Monday to Friday, NSW/VIC time?

Any tips appreciated!

 

[tayser]

Yen crosses move the most for scalpers.

although the majors are known to move suddenly, but when USD's on the other end of the trade, it's not all that much different to JPY and the frequency of big movements is higher on Yen crosses.

EUR/JPY is a good starting point. You need to be more patient with AUD/JPY, GBP/JPY is not for the faint hearted to begin with but ranges the most (and is easily the most volatile). USD/JPY will have the lowest spread, but won't move as much as the other three.

6pm AEDT = Paris / Frankfurt open (EUR & GBP will start to pick up after 5pm our time - AUD will generally follow unless it's near any of its Support / Resistance / Pivots)
7pm AEDT = London open (everything will build up to the open and usually a trend is set within an hour of it - sometimes almost immediately on it!)
8:30pm AEDT = generally a time when GBP-related announcements are released.
11pm onwards CAD/JPY will start to crank up in anticipation of Canucker/Yank open which is at midnight.

in AEST, we go back an hour and they (all) go forward an hour.

if you want to be cheeky at work, have a look at the market between 10:45am and 11:15am AEDT - minus an hour in AEST (This is when Sydney/Tokyo/Singapore/Hong Kong are all trading).

above is from my own observations over the past 9 months of looking at various FX systems.

 

[StockyGuy]

Really appreciate all that detail you went into, tayser. It's fantastic to see it condensed like that. Thanks for taking the time

I'd be interested in whether anyone would have anything to add to tayser's points.

 

[reece55]

Not much to add, but I would say that EUR/JPY is probably the best mover of the lot in my opinion on a risk/reward basis. And boy, when it moves it really gives you bang for buck...

Geppy (GBP/JPY) is easily the most volatile pair around, if the volatility doesn't kill you the spread certainly will. Geppy is the best pair to trade with high leverage if you wish to blow your account up quickly - many trade it, but it is not for the faint hearted.

USD/JPY is like watching paint dry - not my favorite pair.....

Cheers

 

[Kauri]

Some good standard info on FX in general here.. http://www.babypips.com/school/market_hours.html

Cheers
...........Kauri
PS go off GMT.. the EST is American time

 

[StockyGuy]

Thanks, fellas. I think I'm going to concentrate on EUR/JPY as I practice on my demo account.

 

[Akuma99]

Hey StockyGuy,

I have traded the currency markets for around the last 4-5 years in the NSW timezone, most of the time doing some contracting on the side. I can relate to the question you pose, and like you, I thought the solution was to find a liquid time to scalp the market before heading to bed. My experience however for me has proven that theory wrong. The issue you might find when defining a set time to trade is the tendency to force some trades in markets that aren't showing the movement required as you know that it is the only time you have set to trade.

Instead have a think about trading the longer timeframes at some point, I work off the 4H charts most of the time, and find that it works better for me as it doesn't require constant monitoring. You can place a trade when you get home from work perhaps, check on it when you hit the sack, adjust it when you get up in the morning, and again when you get home. If you are asleep, you are only missing 1 bar/candle, if you are at work, 1 or 2 depending on travel time ... it has not only boosted the balance of my account no end, but also freed up the time to be a husband, father and Rinaldo wannabe. Not to mention the more reliable patterns.

If you do want to scalp in those hours, my suggestion would be to open a cable (GBPUSD) chart and pick pieces off that from about 6pm till sleep time. The GBPJPY is very tradeable all day, sure the spreads are large, but the movements compensate, however the net value per pip makes what looks like a large move in pips, not particularly valuable in $$ (which is all that matters really).

If you do want to trade during Aussie business hours, I have to agree on the EURJPY, or depending on the broker, the AUDJPY can have some nice spreads. Also watch for the Kiwi dollar around news times.

Best of luck