The Road to Successful Trading

 
Chapter 6: Establishing a Trading Schedule 
 
Are you a night owl or an early bird? Do you function better at certain hours of the day? Are you a 
part time trader with only limited hours you can trade? Or, are you a fulltime scalper who will 
spend most of your time chained to your computer? These are important questions to ask when 
trying to structure your trading life. 
If one of your goals is to have more time with family or to play more golf or do the things you like 
to do, then these things should be taken into account when designing your trading plan. One of the 
greatest gifts of being a trader is the flexibility it offers.
In the U.S., most markets start trading at 9:30 am Eastern Time and close at around 4:00 pm 
Monday thru Friday. Some exceptions apply and you should find out the hours of operation for the 
exchanges you wish to trade. So, if you live in California, your trading times may be from 6:30 am 
to 1:00 pm Pacific Time. If this is not a good time for your trading activities, you could trade on one 
of the European Exchanges, which would open at around 2:30 pm and close around Midnight 
Pacific time; plenty of time to prepare and see how things have transpired in the U.S. markets. Or, 
you could instead trade in Japan where the markets open at about 9:00 pm Pacific Time, plenty of 
time to come home from work, eat dinner, watch the news and prepare for the opening of trading in 
Japan. Of course, not all investments trade on all markets. The best thing to do is check with your 
brokerage and see what foreign markets you can trade on for a specific investment.
One very important consideration when scheduling your trading is to understand how the particular 
investment trades. Often times, the “big players” will make their trades early in the trading day or 
right near closing. Before trading any specific investment, you should get an idea of how it trades.
Certain commodities trade heavily at certain specific times as do currencies such as just prior to 
FOMC meetings. 
The following is a list of exchanges located in the U.S., Canada, Europe, The United Kingdom and 
Japan. There are many more markets throughout the world but these nations offer execution 
procedures and regulations similar to those found in the U.S.and other more advanced trading 
nations.