If you've ever watched any 'Day in the life of a Trader' type videos, you'll note they all have one thing in common - they all get up at some indecent ungodly hour to start the day.

I'm one of the laziest people I know and can't think of anything worse than dragging my sorry ass out of bed at that time of day to peer at stock charts... so here are some tips on when the best (and worst) times to trade are.

Trade the next market

If you're borderline narcoleptic like me, then don't trade your own market but the next major due to open. Instead of getting up for the UK 08.00 GMT open I instead trade the more agreeable US market at 14.30 GMT. If you're in the US then trade the Asian market 00.00 GMT.

If I can't sleep or just having a late night, I'll sometimes trade the Asian market. Just note that the majority of action is during the European and US markets, volatility is a lot lower in Asia. Top tip though, the Asian market often reverses the action of the US market, more often than not ;-)

Amateur hour

Unless you have some kind of daybreak strategy, stay away from the market for the first hour. Volatility is really high and it's easy to get slapped in and out of positions. Note that the price quite often reverses after the first hour, and often the entire range for the day is set by the high and low of that hour (a lot of daybreak strategies are based on it).

Events and news

This one should be obvious, but don't trade near events unless you really know what you're doing. The smart money already knows what the news is going to be, and you'll just get stopped out. Don't think you can predict what the market is going to do on good/bad news as it's likely to be wrong !

Say for example unemployment figures come out and they're expected to be bad, and the market is expected to go down. If the figures come out and bad, but not as bad as expected, then the market is likely to go up... This is because the smart money has already hedged the worst case result, so anything not so bad is a positive.

There are plenty of free financial calendars and websites around, so as a good habit always have a look before the start of your day to see if there are any expected events coming up and at what time. I would advise to stop trading at least 30 minutes either side of the event, and let the market settle. More often than not the price will spike and return to it's original level, but it's not nice to sit through if it's the wrong direction.

There are good strategies you can use to scalp events, but not really for the feint hearted or new trader, just stay clear (I usually do).

Lunchtime

Be aware of lunchtimes around the world, and prepare for a market slowdown. Even city traders need time off to go snort cocaine off a hookers ass. The afternoon session sometimes gives back any gains made in the morning session, so spend the quiet lunchtime period planning your afternoon strategy. Just always be aware of not only your own timezone, but those around the world and what might be happening in them.

Closing time

Watch out for market close, or you might get stuck in a position overnight that you don't want (if day trading). Not only might you get charged for rolling over your position, but the market may gap away and run in the wrong direction, leaving you hundreds of pips out before you can offload the position. This happens to me all the time because I always forget...

Not so much of an issue if you're trading Forex which is 24hr, but stocks and commodities for most people will be untradable outside normal market hours. Something else I always do by mistake is put on a trade just before the market closes, like the US market, and then have to sit and wait for 3 hours till the Asian market open before the price moves. Not pleasant.

One good thing about closes, if it's been a particularly good day in the market then often there is a sell off in the last 30 minutes as people take profits and close out their positions. If you're quick and not greedy then you can sometimes lift a few pips, just don't get caught out by the close.

General advice

I always like to sit and watch the charts for at least an hour to 'tune in' to the market. I find it gives me an idea of what the general volatility is like, if the market is going to be raging about all day or a slow burner that drifts up and down. I know it can change from morning to afternoon, or after events etc, but it's just something I like to do and I don't think it's such a bad habit.

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Disclaimer : If you blindly act on the advice of strangers from the internet then you're an idiot and probably deserve to lose all your money. There's no fast track to success. Do your own research and make informed decisions based on all available evidence. Critical thinking is the key to everything.