Good day everyone,

One of the earliest mistakes I ever made as a Forex trader is looking for trades around 5pm NY time. If any new traders are reading this, the only times you really need to look for trades is between 2am and 12pm NY time. Trying to trade when the new day starts which is 17:00 aka 5pm NY, is one of the easiest mistakes to avoid making. The spreads become astronomical and the price movement erratic. This is largely brokers trying to wipe out anyone who is in a position and has their stops too close. On a pair like GBPAUD, the spreads jump to about 25 pips and in the example shown, the range wiped up and down 75 pips multiple times in 15 minutes. Go to a 1 minute chart and look for yourself.

That is also why I will never hold a trade overnight again. It's hard enough to trade much less when your broker wants to poke you out of your position or make you withstand a 100 pip price swing, because of an "illiquid market" precisely at 17:00 aka 5pm NY which is just an excuse to justify their behavior of spread and price manipulation. At least that is my theory, anyway. So just avoid the trap and develop a system where you are in and out of trades in the same day. The less time you spend in a trade, the less time the market makers can toy with your position. Not to mention the mental capital that one must preserve in order to be successful in this game. Knowing when not to trade is just as important as knowing when to trade. This is an offensive and defensive battle and it's up to us to figure out the tactics that work to our benefit.

One tactic that I just shared is to never trade at 5pm NY time. So wherever you are in the world, find NY time and match it to your region and not only trade the hours of 2am-12pm (more specifically 8am-12pm) NY, but also avoid trading the trap hour of 5pm NY. I've spent many thousands of dollars learning the lessons in this post so you don't have to lol. Thank you for reading and happy trading!
Beyond Technical AnalysisRisk ManagementTrend Analysis

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