Why I chose Asia trading over sleeping through Asia

[LondonScalper]

Most London scalpers sleep through Asia. For a few months I deliberately traded it instead, and I want to explain why and what limits I put on it.

The reason was practical. For a period my day job meant I could not trade London consistently, but I was free late in the evening. Asia was the only session available. Rather than sit out completely, I decided to treat it as a separate, small project.

Rules I set: a tiny risk budget, about a third of my London size, and a maximum of three trades per night. Pairs limited to AUDUSD, USDJPY and NZDUSD, which actually move in that session. No leftover positions from Asia into the London open, ever. And a hard stop time of 01:30 London, so I could still sleep.

Results were close to breakeven after costs, slightly positive in the best month. Not great money, but the experience was useful. I learned how differently the session behaves, and my Asia range levels for London got much better because I had watched them form.

Choosing Asia was a shift plan, not insomnia with a mouse. If it had become late nights out of boredom, I would have stopped immediately. Once London was available again, I went back.

[Shadow Trader]

Treating Asia as a separate project with its own budget is the part most people skip. The ones I've seen try it usually trade Asia with London size and London expectations, and the session punishes both.

One detail on the 01:30 stop time is that it sits on different sides of the Tokyo fix depending on the season. The fix is 09:55 Tokyo, which is 01:55 London in summer and 00:55 in winter, so from the end of this month it falls inside your window.

For USDJPY that matters, because the minutes around the fix can push the pair harder than the rest of the night. I treated it like a data release, flat ten minutes before and no new trade until 10:15 Tokyo.

The other cost is rollover. From about 21:55 to 23:05 London my spreads on AUDUSD and NZDUSD were often three or four times normal, so I never opened anything in that hour.

I agree the main benefit was watching the Asia range form, and I ended up noting where the range had been tested twice, which mattered more at London than the plain high and low. Did you keep a separate journal for the Asia trades, or one journal with a session tag?

[Shadow Trader]

LondonScalper, your breakeven result is about what I would expect from the cost side alone. Asia ranges on AUDUSD and NZDUSD are small enough that stops have to be tight, and spreads in those hours are rarely at their best.

On my numbers a typical Asia stop was about 5 pips with 0.6 pips of spread and commission, so roughly 12% of R went on entry. My London stops on EURUSD sit nearer 8 pips with 0.3 pips of cost, under 4%, which is a very different starting line for the same setups.

That makes a slightly positive best month more impressive than it sounds. An edge that survives that kind of cost would probably look much better in the London book.

I would also split the result by pair. USDJPY had the widest ranges of your three and in my experience the cheapest cost per pip of range, so I would guess most of the positive month came from there.

Was that the case for you? If one pair carried the whole project, it might be worth keeping a single USDJPY setup as an occasional option on nights when you are awake anyway.