A Day in the Life of an Equity Trader
An Equity Trader is responsible for developing intraday trading strategies and daily trade execution on our advanced trading infrastructure. On a daily basis there are many ups and downs for an Equity Trader. The following outlines a typical day for an Equity Trader at Halinova Trading Inc.
Note: All times are expressed in Atlantic Standard Time.
8:00 AM – Morning prep
Being properly prepared for each trading day is essential to my success as an intraday trader. To start my day I spend time researching the current market for breaking news, earnings announcements, economic data, technical levels and anything else I think might be relevant for the trading day.
9:00 AM – Morning meeting
Each morning traders at the firm meet in the boardroom to discuss the upcoming trading day. In the meeting we discuss the overall market and any specific stocks we feel will be ‘in play’ for the day. Every trader brings their own views and shares with the group. Today a trader in the morning meeting identified a great technical set up on V (Visa Inc.) that I had not noticed in my own research. I will likely make V my main focus when the market opens.
9:30 AM to 10:30 AM – Pre-market
The final hour before the market opens is a crucial period where I will be working hard to pour through charts and news stories to find the best opportunities for the morning session. The Jobless Claims number was just released and was much better than expected. Pre-market trading activity is already pushing the markets higher, this should set the stage for an active trading day.
10:30 AM to 12:15 PM – Morning session
Every morning I love watching them ring the bell on the trading floor in New York. I can always feel myself getting excited when I hear it ring and I say to myself “So where am I going to make money today?”
The early morning market tends to be relatively thin and as a result conditions can be quite volatile and dangerous. The morning trading volume is decent, however, and there are often great opportunities. I know that given the proper setups I can put together some highly profitable trades and capitalize on some of the volatility.
Lately I have been struggling in the first 30 minutes or so after the open and today is no exception. I was trading V at the open and it traded just as forecasted in the morning meeting. Unfortunately I kept missing the best entry points and taking bad prices chasing the stock. This just caused me to get shaken out several times for small losses. I think I will really scale back at the beginning of the trading session from now on until I can improve on my execution skills in the morning.
12:15 PM to 3:15 PM – Lunch session
During the lunch session trading volume really slows down. Generally this is a good time to grab lunch, review the morning session and spend time finding good trading setups for the afternoon session.
Today I am reviewing video recording of my morning trades on V. I quickly see several errors that can be easily corrected. I will also sit in on a group video review session where we will watch video of another trader’s morning.
3:15 PM to 5:00 PM – Afternoon session
In the afternoon session things really start to pick up. Trends and ranges have been established and top volume symbols have been identified. I can feel the energy on the floor as all the traders are back from lunch intensely focused on their monitors. Some traders wear their emotions on their sleeve as they either pump their fists in the air in triumph or yell at the market for not doing what they wanted.
Today is a good day. This afternoon our floor noticed that AAPL (Apple Inc.) had been in an up trend all day long. This stock is usually too volatile for my liking but today the moves are much more predictable. AAPL has just announced the release of their new iPhone model and the stock is doing heavy volume. I am able to work my way into a decent sized position with the trend and capitalize on another leg in the up move. I also was able to identify a top and reversed my position. I held the short into the close where AAPL retraced a portion of today’s gains.
5:00 PM – Market close
The market has closed and all my positions are closed for the day. I will take a few minutes to reflect on my day and write in my journal but I am looking forward to getting home for dinner. Tonight I will go over my trade list, results and look through charts for some of today’s most active symbols. I will also keep a close eye on the news to learn what the “street” is saying. Tomorrow promises to be a busy day as a number of earnings announcements are scheduled and there is plenty of chatter about the upcoming Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.
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