London and New York overlap: why it deserves its own stats

[Shadow Trader]

From about 8am to noon New York time, both London and New York are open. Volume peaks, spreads usually tighten, and most of the big directional moves of the day show up here.

For scalpers that's prime time, but it's also where bad habits get exposed. More volatility means faster losses, and more setups means more temptation to overtrade.

Something worth doing: split the journal into pre-overlap and overlap trades. Many traders find that their results in the overlap are better in average winners but worse in discipline. They take more trades, use less patience, and the commissions pile up.

A more subtle point: the overlap isn't uniform. The first hour often has the data releases from the US, and the last hour tends to fade as Europe leaves. Treating four hours as one block hides useful differences.

Is the overlap treated as one window, or broken down into smaller pieces for analysis?