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Nial Fuller

NIAL FULLER Nial Fuller
Professional Trader, Author & Coach

Why You Should Trade End-Of-Day, Not Intra-Day

endofdayMany traders email me asking how they can trade with their busy schedule or say that they don’t have time to sit in front of their computer watching the markets all day. My answer is usually something along the lines of: “Well you don’t have to sit in front of your computer all day if you learn to trade end-of-day Forex strategies”. Now, by ‘end-of-day’, I simply mean after the New York close; it doesn’t have to be exactly at the New York close, but generally there’s a large gap of time between the NY close and the London open where trading is very quiet (the Asian session), and this is the best time to analyze the daily charts and make your trading decisions. This is what I mean when I say “end-of-day trading”.

You might be wondering why I am not a big fan of intra-day trading. Well, the reasons are pretty simple; there is more random price movement or market ‘noise’ on the intra-day charts, and they thus contain more ‘clutter’ and are just more difficult to trade than the daily charts. For a skilled trader who is already successful, intra-day trading might be something to consider. But, if you are a beginner, a struggling trader, or simply someone who doesn’t have a lot of time each day to devote to trading, trading the daily charts in an end-of-day manner is going to be your best option.

Keep your day job

End-of-day trading basically allows you to fit in trading around your schedule, whatever it may be. You can keep your day job with no problems. Many people seem to think that if they can’t sit and watch the markets all day then they can’t trade, this is simply not true.

In fact, being away from the market is actually good for you – this is a ‘hidden’ advantage to end-of-day trading. Since you won’t be as involved with the markets you will have a ‘natural filter’ against over-trading and this will likely increase your bottom line at the end of the year. It’s a statistically proven fact that low-frequency traders make more money over the long-run than high-frequency traders, on average.

As an end-of-day Forex trader you can live your life exactly as you are now, but instead of spending 30 minutes watching television at night, you can simply analyze the markets according to your trading plan and look for price action trading setups. It might seem too good to be true, but really it’s not; the truth of the matter is that once you learn an effective trading strategy and develop into an effective trading plan, you really do not need to spend hours analyzing the markets each day.

Less clutter on your charts and in your brain

lessclutterHumans have a tendency to make trading far more complicated than it really is. I am not saying that trading is ‘easy’, because as we all know it’s not easy to make consistent money in the markets. But, most people make the entire process of trading far too complicated, and really the analysis part of trading is actually very simple. The difficult aspect of trading lies in taking profits and remaining unemotional. Deciding to enter or not is the easiest decision you have to make in the markets; essentially it all boils down to this; there’s either a signal or there’s not.

Once you have learned and mastered an effective trading strategy like price action, you then need to formulate it into a trading plan. After that, it’s as simple as checking the markets each day after the New York close and seeing if your trading edge is present. Once you develop this into a routine it really should not take more than 30 minutes or so for you to decide if there’s a signal worth trading. I get emails from traders everyday telling me they are frustrated and confused and then they tell me they are using forex indicators and checking the markets all day…they simply cannot see the forest for the trees! Meaning, the REASON they are frustrated and confused is because they are over-complicating the easiest part of trading, which is analyzing the charts and looking for a trading signal.

More ‘bang for your buck’

What I mean by ‘more bang for your buck’ is that by being a daily chart end-of-day trader you are making more effective and efficient use of your time. Since daily chart signals are more powerful and contain more ‘weight’ than intraday signals, it means your time is better spent analyzing the daily charts after the NY close where you can simply check the markets for a signal real quick and then walk away. Any signal you find is likely to be much more significant than a signal you may have found earlier in the day or night on an intra-day chart. Thus, you are getting more out of spending less time in the markets by focusing on the daily charts rather than sitting at your computer all day trying to trade the intra-day charts.

HOW to trade end-of-day

Another email question I often get is “How do I trade end of day” or “What is end of day trading”? So, this next part should clearly answer those questions, and if you email me about it I am going to refer you to this article ;)! So, let’s discuss how to trade Forex (or any market) end-of-day:

Remember this: 30 minutes a day is all you need to analyze the markets and find your entry or manage your trades:

• It ALL starts with the signal – You scan your favorite markets and first look for a clear signal of one of the setups in your trading plan. After you have mastered your trading strategy this should be a very easy and quick task, taking no more than about 10 to 15 minutes. You are simply looking at the daily chart time frames for obvious instances of your trading edge. If nothing stands out to you after 10 minutes or so of analyzing the markets, there probably is nothing worth risking your money on. Where traders get into trouble is when they don’t see an obvious signal right away and then keep looking until they convince themselves there’s something worth trading, even though there isn’t. This is a very easy trap to fall into and you’ve got to ignore that temptation to ‘dig up’ something to trade when there is nothing ‘ripe’ staring you in the face.

• Looking for levels – Match a signal up to a level; if you find an obvious price action setup the next thing you’ll do is see if it lines up with any obvious level(s). You’ll have to draw in the key daily chart levels at the start of the week and then analyze and adjust them if needed each day after the New York close. This is also not something that will take much time after you get some education under your belt and understand what a key level is vs. a level that isn’t as significant. Here’s a video on drawing support and resistance levels.

• Gauge market conditions – Is the market trending or consolidating…? If it’s trending is it in a strong trend or is it slowly grinding higher or lower? Is the market in distinct trading range? Where are the obvious key boundaries of the trading range? Make sure your signal makes sense in the context of the current market conditions. For example, maybe you see a decent looking pin bar strategy but it’s against a very strong trend…probably not the best setup then.

• Make your own daily commentary – Making a daily commentary of your favorite markets is a good way to get an objective view of the charts each day. Using the guidelines in your trading plan and the three points above, go over your favorite markets each day and make notes about what you see, actually write or type it out so that it becomes a habit. Then once you finish with your top 5 or 10 favorite markets, go back and re-read your comments and see if anything really stands out to you. This process will give you a good overview of what’s happening in the market and will help you better understand the overall market picture and whether or not anything is worth trading…it will help you stay “in tune” with the markets and will work to develop your discretionary trading sense. This is one of the biggest things that helped me become successful in the markets.

• When you’re done, you’re done – Once you go through your daily ‘end-of-day routine’, you have two possible outcomes: there’s either a trade or there’s not. Either way you should walk away. You either enter your trade parameters or you do nothing, and either way you should leave your charts until the next day, then come back and see what happened. This act alone will almost completely cut out the temptation to over-trade, which is most trader’s biggest downfall. You aren’t going to help anything by looking at the markets and staring at your trades. Sure, you might nip a couple of would-be losers early, but in the long-run you’re only going to end up cutting your winners short, closing trades at breakeven, and generally just interfering in your trades when you shouldn’t.

This 24 hour break from the markets shows that you release your arrogance and that you truly understand you can’t control the markets. Let the market do the work for you, you should have already accepted your risk on the trade…you should basically assume you are going to lose on the trade, so that every time you come back the next day and see a winning trade it’s a nice surprise, and a loser is not a disappointment but rather something you already expected. It’s when people expect to win on every trade that they start becoming emotional.

Summing up the end-of-day trading strategy

As you can see, end-of-day trading is not only a good strategy, but it’s also a philosophy. The philosophy of not being glued to your charts, of accepting that the market will do what it wants, and of generally just being less involved with the markets is a mature trading philosophy that shows understanding of how the markets work and of how the trading game is won. It really allows you to release that ‘need’ to be right and to control everything in your trading. So, even as you become more experienced and perhaps want to trade lower time frame charts, this philosophy of briefly checking the markets for your trading edge, making a decision and then walking away, will still benefit you and can still be used. This philosophy is at the heart of my personal trading style and you can learn more about it in my Forex trading course and members’ community here.


Nial Fuller

About Nial Fuller

is a Professional Trader, Investor & Author who is considered ‘The Authority’ on Price Action Trading. His blog is read by over 200,000+ followers and he has taught 25,000+ students since 2008. In 2016, Nial won the Million Dollar Trader Competition. Checkout Nial's Professional Trading Course here.
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  1. Niederhoffer

    Thanks my mentor. Love you

    Reply
  2. Saminu umar hajji

    Thanks so much more my master you did everything for us pride be you ❤️

    Reply
  3. Debra Steele

    I found you just in time, Nial. After a week of what I characterize as “meddling,” I’m ready for a break from my foolishness. Too many trades this week, too many changes to my TP and SL settings and waaay too much time in front of the screen. I look forward to using the Daily time frame, to set it and forget it and to stop my meddling and let the trades run. Thank you!

    Reply
  4. Ginsy

    Very useful content! Thanks you Nial.

    Reply
  5. Roy

    Great article Nial.
    Even my broker keeps sending me emails to trade intraday. i want to be profitable so i will stick to the higher timeframe charts for good.

    Reply
  6. Emeka Egwim

    Sure to put this ‘creed’ in to my trading style immediately. It perfectly suits my already complicated 9 -5 daily work life.

    Reply
  7. MARY

    I believe i have at last found the right path to profitable forex trading.Thank you Nial

    Reply
  8. Bernice

    thank you very much,i am a beginner in the Forex market and am really blessed to have read your posts in my early days,its really helping.GOD BLESS YOU!

    Reply
  9. Alan

    The article on “Set & Forget Strategy” has been a saving grace since half of the year I spend in Thailand and the other half in the U.S.A. I continue to re-read when it pops up again from time to time. Have a great day. Best regards: Alan

    Reply
  10. raju

    this is a light onto my trading path. God bless you

    Reply
  11. Melvin Stinson

    I just want to take the time to thank you! I’ve learned more about trading currency in the last few weeks, since coming to your site, than in the last year and a half fooling with these other so called gurus. You make it so simple to understand. Thank you. Plan on becoming a member soon.

    Reply
  12. Felix

    Excellent article as usual,

    Only one question:
    Living in England, the closing day is late, can lo do it first thing in the morning? but you loose the break to see things more clearly.
    Any suggestions?

    Your teachings are uplifting, Thank you

    Reply
  13. Tom Kissack

    Yep. from being a 15 minute or 30 mins scalper glued to the screens much of the time for 3 months, I now set my trades as Nial said, end of day, well for the last few months. Still have to have a sneak look at the trades in the night on my android, and yep, I am guilty of what he says, close the trade too early (many many times I have done this) or at break even through panic. I need to take Nial’s advice and let he market do the work.

    Reply
  14. olumide

    this is a light onto my trading path. God bless you.

    Reply
  15. V.Laxminaayana

    Kindly give me your suggestion on trading a weekly chart. Which chart is better for trading the daily chart or a weekly chart. And How can a weekly chart help you on trading in a daily chart.

    Reply
    • Nial Fuller

      V . Please email me for more help with daily vs weekly chart trading

      Reply
  16. Rotimi Daniel

    Good article Nial, keep it flowing

    Reply
  17. Komohi

    Its very interesting, thanks for lightening my path, hope the best for you.

    Reply
  18. CJ

    Thanks a lot Nail, I learned quite a lot today :)

    Reply
  19. Aida

    Enjoyed reading all your articles. Been very helpful. Thanks Nial.

    Reply
  20. Gloria

    Re-reading this for the third time!

    It is a very encouraging article, full of truth and wisdom.

    Great work Nial.

    Reply
  21. Rahim Aziz

    I read all of your emails at midnight it gives me better understanding I am newbie and still be a newbie lol.. as learning never stops. Thanks!! Nial… keep sending…

    BR
    Rahim Aziz

    Reply
  22. Aldo

    After losing almost 60% of my account in the intraday trading, with a lot of indicators in my charts, that by the way looks more like a Christmas tree, with different colors. I’m returning to the basics, vanilla plain charts, daily charts, drawing support and resistance, trading only when there is a clear edge and obvious trend, thanks Nial for bringing me back to planet safety trading.

    Reply
    • wenus

      It is an enlightening article!

      Reply
  23. Shehab

    perfect article please keep me updated of all of your thoughts
    Regards,
    Shehab

    Reply
  24. Hadji

    Thanks for the article Nial.

    Reply
  25. alberto

    Excellent lesson!!. Thank you.

    Reply
  26. pilly

    Surely good information. Shall now start documenting analysis & review before executing trades. Thanks

    Reply
  27. ahsan ahmed

    a very good lesson for the beginers like,beginers csnnot cope up,compete with the intra-day trading.so end of the day tradung is best for them.

    Reply
  28. Udom, Ubong

    Nial, you have always been delivering GOOD material. if I have used your advice 2 years ago I would have been a pro with mega-bucks in the bank by now. But I thank God I have started towing your line of action now and I have not had any regret for doing so.

    Once again thank you for another good lecture.

    Reply
  29. Juan

    Good call, Nial.

    Reply
  30. walker

    Re Looking for levels..yep nice video Nial.
    Draw s/r levels..swing points on chart first..wait for price to get there… then wait for pa signal..
    Ie.. downtrend ..draw in resistance level ..wait for price to retrace to this level and look for pa signal to go short.. makes sense to me.

    Reply
  31. kotijett

    Thanks Nial great article!

    Reply
  32. Lionel

    I like the idea of end of day trading but what are your comments with regards to the spreads which are at their widest after the US trading session ends.

    Reply
  33. Stella

    Your articles have wise understanding and how to avoid the common traps the some traders develop.
    It is also encouraging of how we dont need to make it so hard to be successful.Whilst I am not a member as yet, due to being away from home, it is helping me to make the decision to become a member, as soon as we return back from our sojurn. Previously, I have been with another currency learning company, and have become frozen with fear with how difficult they made it for some of us. So many indicators and 1hourly and 15min charts and daily and weekly and fib retracements to try to learn.Some people may appreciate what I am saying.
    I just want to enjoy a slow and steady learning curve, if that is possible? The hare and the tortoise, maybe?

    Reply
  34. Ida

    Interesting. But the challenge is when to open position.

    Reply
  35. slivester

    great2 advice once again. Thanks Nial………………

    Reply
  36. emmanuel

    you make looking up to the next trading week pleasureable…l relish your articles week in week out, l digest slowly and repeatedly dat’s why you don’t see me asking to many stupid questions bcos they r clear ..hmmm…for me Nail..am not flattering u,..U R THE HOLY GRAIL IN FOREX IN HUMAN FORM!!!!..hv a smooth Wknd!!!cheers!

    Reply
  37. edmond

    yup, i agree we can’t prevent losses… and we also can’t prevent profit either! :)

    Reply
  38. Tomson

    Great article again!
    Helping us putting it all together.

    Funny that something that looks so simple can be so hard to do, staying focused and follow your plan, stay out of the bad setups (those that aren’t any real setup).

    Thanks
    Tomson

    Reply
  39. ann

    there is alot of choppiness/noise in hourly, 4hour and even the daily charts too!– at the end of the day -it boils down to your ability to read and understand your charts-if you do not understand how to effectively read a chart- to a good standard – then changing to a daily timeframe or any other timeframe for that matter will not help you!

    Reply
  40. Sudip Ahmed

    Big thanks for this informative & useful article Nial, i was kind of confused with the multi-time frame analysis and hope this article will help me to solve my problem. Thanks again.

    Reply
  41. Lyndon

    I have backed of on the intra day trading lately and making more money and have more time. It’s good advice Nial.

    Reply
  42. Preciouschizy

    Great article Nial. Tnx

    Reply
  43. M Kashif

    Thanks Nial,
    your lessons are always very helpfull!

    Reply
  44. Zaw

    Great articles from you as always!
    I am gonna start making own daily commentary from now on…

    Reply
  45. Nabs

    Money + time = end-of-day trading

    Excellent article

    Thanks to remember me that ;-)

    Reply
  46. David

    Nial,

    Hey, another great article for the many of us that are not yet fortunate to do this full time but want to develop the correct skills part-time and make money. I am just in my second month after taking your course, and following your direction and it’s working quite nicely. I am actually glad that I currently work full-time because I am sure the markets would lure me in to watch the intra-day trading.

    For those of you that may be new I recommend taking Nial’s Forex Course and reading his daily commentary. He has been doing this for a long time and consistently making money. It is rare today that someone like Nial is willing to give all of us this gift each day.

    Nial, I am glad you’re a young guy so I can continue learning from you 20, 30+, years from now. Keep up the great job.

    Reply
  47. Andrew

    Thanks for the advice Nial. I have actually tried this strategy twice with price action and it has worked because my trades were really successful making my profit targets for the week just overnight. Intraday trading can be tough some times.

    Reply
  48. RomNed

    Excellent article!

    Reply
  49. Tracy

    The hardest part of trading is the “WAITING” for a signal.
    Only getting one look a day (Daily chart) really requires tons of patience. More experience with trading will eventually bring us that ultimate prize we are all in this
    game for… THE MONEY! Thx u for the lessons, Nial. They keep me motivated and focused on the journey.

    Reply
  50. V.Laxminarayana

    My deal nail fuller,

    I am office goer and this type of end of the day is very suitable and profitable to me.. Kindly give me any other sugestions for the persons like me who are busy with their occupation in the daytime

    Reply
  51. Kenny R

    Great advice as usual Nial. It’s the only way I trade. The Daily charts take into account practically ever trading session so you can see the opinions of practically the entire world in 1 candlestick. My account has been steadily climbing since mastering one strategy and looking for setups only on the daily charts! Since I only spend about 10 hours a month analyzing the markets this sets up the foundation for a true trader’s lifestyle.

    Reply
  52. PERI

    It is an enlightening article !

    Reply
  53. asep

    Nice articel.. Nial, you make me enjoy in trading, succes Nial..

    Reply
  54. alan kleeger

    After the N.Y. all currencies seem to be still moving. So how do you set up a set and forget strategy while the market continues to move. That trading that goes on after the market closes in N.Y. a person has to be quick to set the entry, and stop placement. I understand there is a large gap between the N.Y. close and the London Open. So any movement in the market after the close of the N.Y. market until the opening of the London Exchange is caused by the activity going on in the Asian market. The “set and forget strategy” I am still trying to get a handle on.

    Reply
  55. Frank Page

    Sounds good however only checking for daily trades will lead to many lost oppoetunities from say 8 hr, 6 hr, 4hr charts. I do the daily routine then go for these time frames as well.
    Looking only once every 24 hrs will lead to boredom inho!

    Reply
  56. Terhile

    Thanks Nial. Trading has never been more interesting since I started using your methods.Keep up the good job

    Reply
  57. Maurice

    Excellent article Nial. It’s very interesting when you can look at your self in the mirror and change what you see. This needs to be read many time and your actions changed if necessary.

    Reply
  58. David Rabbin

    One of you best articles I so often rushed in to catch a move only to find that the market has discarded it .Wher as next day the market will usually confiRm the opinion of the last half ours traders.

    Reply
  59. Todor

    Brilliant! If you are novice and/or get stuck in trading FX like me, do yourself a favor and read this article again and again. Then start implementing what you’ve learned. Many thanks, Nial!

    Reply
  60. Sanusami

    Can’t say how much it helpful me. Very encouragement article. Fantastic article…

    Reply
  61. Zat Bee

    Good one Master,

    Its funny how you say all the things that the other so called trading teachers out there are hiding from us.
    You are the Greatest Nial.

    Enjoy your w/end

    Reply
  62. Herve

    Nial, you keep the line. beautiful!

    Reply
  63. Jon

    Excellent article!

    Reply
  64. Keith(from england)

    Hey Nial, another great article. Since i’ve been using your methodology i’ve gained 9% in the last six weeks. It would have been more but meddling with my trades when I see a little bit of profit has stopped me letting my winners run. I now do commentary and document every trade before and after, win or loose, and this really helps. Keep up these great articles and thanks again.

    Reply
  65. Martin

    Such great advice once again. Thanks Nial, happy trading!

    Reply
  66. Jørn Simensen

    A very good article Nial.

    Reply