What are most important
US stock market trading hours ?

My stock market trading tip
for swing trading stocks
and day trading strategies

It is also possible to trade solely on US markets and take advantage of another international stock markets. It is not needed to trade stocks directly in Europe or in Asia.

It is much better to trade them in US. Why ? The US stock exchanges offer better liquidity, better risk management possibilities. International exchanges are not so easy accessible for individual trader even he has one of the best stock broker available.

The trading conditions on international stock exchanges are not so favorable as on US stock exchanges - especially in the matter of trading fees and liquidity. It is also complicated to be available during stock market trading hours of these international exchanges if they are opened during our sleeping time.

I personally trade especially on US exchanges where I also use instruments that allow me to participate on development on international markets.

These instruments are exchange traded funds as they offer me to trade stock exchanges in different part of the world. My list of international ETF shares I monitor regularly cover all major exchanges around the world.

There is also possible to trade commodities with US listed commodity exchange traded funds. These products are much better for individual trader. They are also better for institutional fund trader as is possible to see in last years. There are a lot of hedge funds which trade a lot of ETFs on US stock exchanges.

Third option is to trade currency markets with currency ETF shares. I do not trade currency ETFs too much as I prefer to be directly on FX markets. But I like to analyze these currency ETFs to see situation in currency area.

And if you have good broker, you can trade stock and currencies on the same account !

Best US stock market trading hours
for swing trading stocks

US stock markets are open from 9:30 a.m. till 4 p.m. New York time. This period could be divided into several time frames . Some of them are more important then others.

My preferable type of trading is swing trading stocks. I think that the most important part of trading time are first two hours of trading day and last two hours of trading day. I prefer to make my swing and also position trades in these periods.

I do not like to do anything during first 20 to 30 minutes of trading. It is very volatile period and it is good for daytraders. But I am not daytrader and so I like to let things settle a little bit.

Time from 10 till 11:30 is good trading time for me. Another good trading time is from 2 pm to 4pm. Especially last 30minutes of trading are very important for me. It is not so well known but most institutional investors make their entries or exits during last hour or last 30 minutes of trading days.

It is possible to understand what big investors are doing by monitoring action of last hour. Is there strong selling in last 30 minutes to close ? Or strong buying ? What is preferred action by big money now ?

I noticed many times that bullish action from beginning of the day was totally reversed by the end of day selling by big money. And also bearish action in first hours was reversed by late buying mania.

I think that it pays to monitor these two periods of US stock market trading hours.

Here is some example of price development of WBMD shares during one trading day.

Most day trading strategies
use first two hours of trading

The best time for daytrades is from the open till 10:30 or 11 a.m. I tend to recommend also to daytraders to avoid first 5 or 10 minutes as they are extremely volatile due filling of orders placed overnight and before market open.

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