An After Dinner Trade on the Nikkei 225 with Nadex

If you are busy working during the daytime, and can't watch the markets, here is a trading strategy that could yield consistent trading results after dinner.

Early yesterday evening, I was browsing through the Nadex trading platform, and I decided to take a look at some markets that I rarely trade. I pulled up the Japan 225 (Nikkei) index, and started to look at the historical performance of that index on multiple time frames to see if any patterns emerged.

When I switched to the hourly charts, something jumped out at me. It appeared that the 8pm EDT hourly candlestick controlled the 9pm EDT candlestick with a high degree of frequency. 

Here's what I saw:

Click on Chart to Enlarge

Notice the 8pm hourly candlesticks above. Can you see that the following 9pm candlestick never challenges the opening price of the 8pm candlestick? In fact, the 9pm candlestick tends to continue in the same direction that was established by the 8pm candlestick. I back-tested the hourly charts on Nadex, and the same pattern repeated itself for 10 consecutive trading days. Then I switched to the Nikkei feed on Investing.com and continued back-testing through mid-April. The pattern held about 85-90 percent of the time.

The same phenomenon occurs with the 7am-9am German "Strudel" strategy that I have written about extensively. Complete rules for the "Strudel" strategy are included in the free eBook from TradingPub, entitled "Trading Made Simple: Strategies that Risk $100 or Less".

The rules for this new strategy are very simple to execute:

• Select the 8pm-10pm EST Nadex time period for the Japan 225 (Nikkei) Index.
• If the 8pm EST hourly candlestick is BULLISH, then BUY at the first Nadex strike price available BELOW the opening price of hourly candlestick.
• If the 8pm EST hourly candlestick is BEARISH, then SELL at the first Nadex strike price available ABOVE the opening price of hourly candlestick.

This is a very simple strategy that looks like it can be remarkably consistent. Just be patient and watch the 8pm hourly candlestick develop. Once it's confirmed bullish, then buy. If it's confirmed bearish, then sell. If you want to be "super-safe", don't make a trading decision until 9pm, after the 8pm hourly candlestick has closed.

Since this is the first time I have traded on this observation, I elected to trade in demo, and here is how the traded played out:

Click on the chart to Enlarge

8:00pm - The 8pm hourly candlestick opened at 20114.667, and drove downward for 30 minutes. Convinced that the market was going to continue on its bearish path, a pending/working order was placed to SELL from the first strike price available ABOVE the 8pm opening price. 2 trades were placed:

These were not a market orders. For both of them to fill, the market would have to grind back upward for a fill. Sure enough the market reversed and ground its way upward, filling both orders.

9:00pm - The 8pm hourly candlestick closed BEARISH at 20115.000.  For both orders to expire successfully in the money, the Japan 225 market need to close at or below 20140 by the 10 pm expiration.  The market ground back upward, threatening my SELL order at >20140. It ultimately came back down and settled at  exactly 20140. A little too close for comfort, but a successful trade nonetheless.

Trade Results:

Win: SELL at >20180 - 4 contracts x $20 profit,  less $7.20 in exchange fees = $72.80
Win: SELL at >20140 - 1 contract x $43.50 profit, less $1.80 in exchange fees = $41.70
Total Profit after fees: $114.50

Conclusion:

This is a new trading observation. I have back-tested as far back as I can get a feed from Investing.com. Over the past 2 months, the results look promising. I will continue to demo this a few more times to see if the strategy needs tweaking, and will continue to record and report results.

Try this Strategy Out for Yourself. Download a 2 Week Nadex Demo.
Nadex is now available for trading in 47 countries. You will have complete access to the Nadex trading platform, and your demo account will be funded with $25,000 in play money.

Free Nadex Education Reminder:

• Monday, June 22 Binary Strangles and Butterflies 7pm EST  Register Here

To view a other high-probability Nadex trading strategies, click below:

The Purpose of this Blog

The Inquisitive Trader will be used  to share my experiences as an investor getting back into trading the markets. In June 2014 I joined the staff at TradingPub, and I am responsible for helping to book speakers for free webinars. Each week, I am exposed to a wealth of information from leading industry experts who teach how to trade the financial markets. When I come across interesting trading strategies, I will summarize my thoughts and share a link to the archived webinar. As I develop my own trading plan, I will also share some of my personal successes and failures. Responsible comments are welcome, but to avoid flaming posts and spam, I will be moderating all comments. I hope you find this blog useful, and wish you the very best on your journey trading the markets.

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author, and should not be construed as trading advice. I am not a registered or certified financial planner. There is a very high degree of risk involved in trading. Past results are not indicative of future returns. All individuals affiliated with this site assume no responsibilities for your trading and investment results. The indicators, strategies, columns, articles and all other features are for educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. Information for futures trading observations are obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but we do not warrant its completeness or accuracy, or warrant any results from the use of the information. Your use of the trading observations is entirely at your own risk and it is your sole responsibility to evaluate the accuracy, completeness and usefulness of the information. You must assess the risk of any trade with your broker and make your own independent decisions regarding any securities mentioned herein.