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I'm planning to add a small AUDUSD book in the Asian session over the winter, and before I spend money learning the hard way I'd like to hear from those of you who already trade it.

My situation: London-based, so the Sydney and Tokyo morning sits at roughly 23:00 to 04:00 for me, depending on the time of year. I'm not willing to trade every night. Two or three nights a week, maybe 23:30 to 02:00, would be my limit.

What I've done so far is watch the pair for about three weeks without trading, and pull six months of M1 data to measure ranges. My rough findings: the first hour after the Sydney open is quiet, then the Australian data releases (usually at 00:30 London in winter, 02:30 in summer) can move it 20 to 40 pips. The Chinese data releases occasionally do more.

My questions for those with experience:

What do you see as the realistic spread on a raw account between 23:00 and 01:00 London? My demo shows 0.3 to 0.6, but demos can flatter.

Do you trade the Australian release itself, or wait for the dust to settle?

How do you deal with the RBA days? Is it worth even trying?

And the big one: how do you keep a London morning routine intact after trading until 02:00? I'm 45, not 25, and I'm wary of what sleep debt does to my judgement at 08:00 the next day.

On the spread, my experience on raw accounts between 23:00 and 01:00 London is closer to 0.4 to 0.9 on AUDUSD, and it widens around the rollover just before 22:00 and for a while after. I'd check your live account across a week before deciding, because demo quotes in that window are usually tidier than live.

I don't trade the Australian releases themselves. I wait at least five minutes and look for the first pullback. The jobs numbers in particular can move 30 pips and then give half of it back while the spread is still wide.

RBA days I'd skip for the first few months. The statement wording matters more than the decision, and reading it fast while trading isn't easy.

On sleep, I tried something close to your plan for a winter. What worked was making the nights fixed, say Tuesday and Wednesday only, and not trading London on the following morning at all. Trying to do both on the same day lasted about two weeks before my London trades got noticeably worse.

Have you measured how often the 23:30 to 02:00 window gives you more than one clean setup?

LondonScalper wrote: What do you see as the realistic spread on a raw account between 23:00 and 01:00

On the spread question, the thing to watch is that the window starts not long after the daily rollover. Most brokers roll at 17:00 New York, which is 22:00 London for most of the year, and AUDUSD spreads can stay wide for anything from a few minutes to the best part of an hour while liquidity providers come back. In the weeks when the UK and US clocks are out of step, the rollover moves to 21:00 London. By 23:00 it's usually back to normal, but the first part of the window is worth sampling separately. On releases, the RBA decision is at 14:30 Sydney time, which is 03:30 London in the northern winter, after a 23:30 to 02:00 book has closed. China's data, around 09:30 to 10:00 Beijing time, is 01:30 to 02:00 London in winter and does sit inside it.

Fairman's point on the rollover window is the filter I wish I'd had earlier. I now skip AUDUSD if the spread at 23:30 London is still above 1.0, even when the demo looks fine, because that first half hour after rollover is where thin Sydney liquidity sits.

The other skip is range based. If the first 45 minutes after the Sydney open cover less than about 8 pips of ADR, I treat the night as dead and leave the platform. Those sessions paid almost nothing last winter and still cost spread.

Australian data at 00:30 still gets a look, but only when that ADR filter has already passed. Under 8 pips of early range, even a jobs print tends to whip rather than trend.

China's 01:30 to 02:00 London prints can sit inside your book, so I mark them the night before. I also cut size in half if I'm still in when they land.

LondonScalper, have you tried a hard spread cutoff at the start of the window? Or do you just wait it out until the quotes look normal?