Late New York is where good setups go to die
Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2026 7:35 am
Between roughly 3 pm and 5 pm New York time, volume drops, London has gone home, and the pace of the market slows to a crawl. Charts still show patterns, but the patterns have less behind them.
Breakouts fail more often because there is little follow-through. Ranges feel tighter, which pushes the stop and target closer, but the spread has not shrunk, so costs eat a bigger share of every trade. The ratio of cost to expected movement gets worse every minute.
There is also the random jump problem. In thin conditions, a single large order can push price several pips without any real information behind it. That is fine for a market maker but unpleasant for a scalper with a 3 pip stop.
A lot of traders find their results improve just by stopping an hour or two earlier. It feels like missing out, but the numbers often show those late trades dragging down the monthly total.
Does your journal show a difference in results between early and late sessions, and did that lead to any change in trading hours?
Breakouts fail more often because there is little follow-through. Ranges feel tighter, which pushes the stop and target closer, but the spread has not shrunk, so costs eat a bigger share of every trade. The ratio of cost to expected movement gets worse every minute.
There is also the random jump problem. In thin conditions, a single large order can push price several pips without any real information behind it. That is fine for a market maker but unpleasant for a scalper with a 3 pip stop.
A lot of traders find their results improve just by stopping an hour or two earlier. It feels like missing out, but the numbers often show those late trades dragging down the monthly total.
Does your journal show a difference in results between early and late sessions, and did that lead to any change in trading hours?