- The Trading Brief
- Posts
- ππ Night Moves: How Overnight Trends Shape Daytime Trading π πΉ
ππ Night Moves: How Overnight Trends Shape Daytime Trading π πΉ
π‘ Discover how after-hours market activity impacts regular trading sessions and why itβs a game-changer for futures traders! π

Welcome back traders to yet another TTB edition, letβs talk about how overnight moves affect regular trading hours.
A quick word from our sponsor:
The Value Investing Blueprint: Learn from Wall Streetβs Best
Uplevel your investing skills and learn from top value investors, world-class faculty and the trainer's Wall Street trusts the most. Reserve your spot in the self-paced Wharton Online and Wall Street Prep Applied Value Investing Certificate Program. Enroll before the final deadline on Feb. 10th
Support the Trading Brief! Clicking our sponsor link (above) not only helps keep this newsletter running but also supports the team behind it. Every click makes a difference, and weβre incredibly grateful for your support. Thank you for being part of our trading community!
Table of Contents

NEWS
ππ Night Moves: How Overnight Trends Shape Daytime Trading π
πΉ

Overnight trading activities significantly influence trends during regular trading hours, often setting the stage for market sentiment and direction. For futures traders, understanding these overnight movements is crucial, as they can provide insights into potential market behavior and inform strategic decisions.
Impact of Overnight Trends on Regular Trading Hours
Overnight futures trading serves as a barometer for market sentiment, reflecting reactions to global events, economic data releases, and geopolitical developments that occur outside U.S. market hours. Futures on indices like the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow Jones are active nearly 24/7, reacting immediately to international news and global economic indicators.TraderInsight
These overnight sessions can lead to "gap up" or "gap down" scenarios at market open, where stock prices open significantly higher or lower than the previous close. Such gaps often set the tone for the trading day, influencing investor behavior and market dynamics. For instance, positive economic data from Europe or Asia can boost overnight futures, leading to a bullish opening in U.S. markets. Conversely, negative news can result in a bearish start.
Do Overnight Trends Result in Daytime Trends?
While overnight trends provide an initial direction, they do not always dictate the entire trading day's trend. The sustainability of these trends depends on various factors, including:
Market Liquidity: Overnight sessions often have lower liquidity, leading to more pronounced price movements. However, as regular trading hours commence and liquidity increases, these initial movements may stabilize or reverse.Neovek Trading
Economic Indicators: Scheduled economic reports released during U.S. trading hours can alter the market's direction, regardless of overnight trends.
Corporate Earnings: Earnings announcements and corporate news can significantly impact market sentiment, potentially overriding overnight trends.
Therefore, while overnight trends offer valuable insights, they are not definitive predictors of daytime market behavior. Traders should consider them alongside other factors to form a comprehensive market view.
Letβs Backtest: Do Overnight Trends Result in Regular Trading Hour Trends?
This analysis includes data from the past 90 trading sessions and excludes data that did not contain a full regular trading session.
Letβs start with NQ, the criteria for overnight trend was an overnight move >100 points while a regular trading day trend was defined as a directional move >150 points.
Overnight Trend | Overnight Range | |
---|---|---|
RTH Trend | 6 | 12 |
RTH Range | 29 | 40 |
This data showed that after an overnight trend, 83% of the following daytime sessions resulted in range. However, after an overnight range, 77% of the following daytime sessions resulted in range days.
When analyzing ES data, the criteria for overnight trend was an overnight move >30 points while a regular trading day trend was defined as a directional move >50 points.
Overnight Trend | Overnight Range | |
---|---|---|
RTH Trend | 3 | 18 |
RTH Range | 3 | 63 |
This data showed that after an overnight trend, 50% of the following daytime sessions resulted in range. However, after an overnight range, 77% of the following daytime sessions resulted in range days. This data was skewed as the data did not include many overnight trends.
Importance for Futures Traders
For futures traders, monitoring overnight trends is essential for several reasons:
Strategic Positioning: By analyzing overnight market movements, traders can position themselves advantageously for the upcoming trading session, anticipating potential market openings and trends.
Risk Management: Understanding overnight developments allows traders to adjust their strategies, hedge positions, and set appropriate stop-loss orders to mitigate potential risks.
Global Perspective: Overnight trading reflects global economic activities. For instance, significant movements in Asian or European markets can influence U.S. futures, providing traders with a broader context for decision-making.
Data and Expert Insights
A study by Adrian Manz highlights that futures markets, including major indexes like the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq, trade 24/7, reflecting economic and global events as they unfold outside regular market hours. Traders and investors closely watch these futures to gauge sentiment and prepare for the market open.
Additionally, the increasing trend towards extended trading hours underscores the growing importance of overnight markets. The New York Stock Exchange plans to extend its trading hours to 22 hours a day, reflecting increased global demand for U.S.-listed securities and aiming to enable more overseas trading of these stocks.Investor's Business Daily
Conclusion
Overnight trading trends play a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of regular trading hours. For futures traders, staying attuned to these developments is vital for effective strategy formulation and risk management. By integrating overnight market analysis into their trading approach, traders can enhance their ability to navigate the complexities of the financial markets.

PROPRIETARY FIRMS
Best Prop Firm Deals 1/20
My Funded Futures is offering up to 25% off on certain plans! Use code SUCCESS
Apex Trader Funding is offering 50% off! Use code SUCCESS
Take Profit Trader is offering 50% off! Use code DEAL
Tradeify is offering 50% off Growth and Advanced accounts!
These are the firms that we currently recommend, this list is updated weekly! Thank you for your support!

EVENTS
Important Data Events - Week 4
These are some market moving events that are occurring this week, take a quick screenshot of this list and set reminders as markets can get volatile during these times.
Monday, January 20th
No Relevant Data |
Tuesday, January 21st
2a EST 5a EST 8:30a EST 4:45p EST | Claimant Count Change (GBP) German Economic Sent. CAD CPI NZD CPI |
Wednesday, January 22nd
10:15a EST | ECB Pres Lagarde Speaks |
Thursday, January 23rd
8:30a EST 11a EST | Unemployment Claims Crude Oil Inventories |
Friday, January 24th
3:15a EST 3:30a EST 4a EST 4:30a EST 9:45a EST 10a EST | French PMI German PMI EUR PMI GBP PMI USA PMI Existing Home Sales |

WEEKLY TRADING LEVELS
FUTURES INDICIES
Enjoy this list of levels that have been curated for you! These levels are some major support and resistance levels that have been identified as areas of interest.
Use them to guide your charting, happy trading! βοΈ
ES 6147 6107 6068 6051.50 (Previous Week High) 5963 5842 5809 (Previous Week Low) 5784 | NQ 22450 22111 21896 21682.50 (Previous Week High) 21172 20694 (Previous Week Low) 20640 20640.25 |

Tillβ next week! Peace out, happy trading! π

Reply