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Dear Brooks Team,
I live and trade in Hawai‘i and follow Al's price‑action approach on the E‑mini S&P (ES). My practical screen window is 7:00 a.m.–11:00 p.m. HST. The New York cash open is 3:30 a.m. HST (about 4:30 a.m. during winter), so I can’t reliably monitor the start of the RTH session.
Over the past year I’ve focused exclusively on ES (I like concentrating on one market). Recently I switched to a Daily‑driven workflow and have been running Daily (RTH) for bias and structure, with 1‑hour (ETH) as my precision/entry chart, making decisions on bar closes.
I would be grateful for any guidance on the following:
- Best primary timeframe given my schedule.
With limited access to the NY RTH open, is Daily the right primary chart for a rules‑based swing approach? If you were trading only the Daily on ES, would you still anchor it to RTH rather than the 24‑hour session? - Session for the execution timeframe.
For the 1‑hour precision chart, would you advise RTH or ETH as the baseline? If you prefer RTH (to avoid weighing thin overnight trading equally), should ETH be used only for context (overnight high/low) and require RTH confirmation before acting? - Stops and invalidation.
On a Daily‑driven trade, should the initial stop and thesis/invalidation levels respect RTH extremes, ETH extremes, or vary by context? Any rule‑of‑thumb you like for overnight tails vs. RTH structure? - 1‑hour vs 4‑hour as the entry tool.
If Daily is the driver, do you generally prefer 1‑hour or 4‑hour for precision entries? - Instrument focus.
Given my timezone and the fact that I’ve stayed with ES for a year (and enjoy specializing), is ES still the best instrument to master, or would you suggest another (e.g., NQ/CL/GC/ZN) for a Daily‑driven swing approach? - Indicators (if any).
Do you find any moving average(s) particularly helpful for context on the Daily and 1‑hour, or would you stay purely with price action with a simple 20 EMA? - Bar‑close discipline.
For a swing workflow like this, is a strict bar‑close‑only decision rule (Daily close for bias/adjustments; 1‑hour close for entries/management) sound, in your view?
Thank you for your time and for all you’ve taught. Any guidance you can share to tighten this process would be greatly appreciated.
Best regards,
James
Trading on the daily chart rather than the 24-hour chart means that the closes of those candles are going to be the settlement price rather than the last price. I think but don't know that most traders and institutions consider more seriously the settlement price while making decisions. The daily chart includes Sunday trading into Monday's candle, I think, while the 24-hour chart doesn't. I prefer 4-hour entries because it's a higher the time frame, and the closes of the candles are more significant, I think. No, I don't think /ES is the best ticker to master, because there are different definitions of best. I think it has the highest tick value, so in that sense, it is the best. The price behaves the same way on all time-frames, it's just more important on a smaller time frame when the EMA is reached from a higher time frame compared to the same time frame EMA being reached. A strict bar-close-only decision rule is sound.
