Forex Asian Session Strategy: Beat the Breakout Traps, Real Example EUR/USD on cTrader

How to trade during the Asian session and why Asian session classical breakouts out of the Asian session range not always will lead to the results you expect. Hello traders, Vladimir Ribakov here from Home Trader Club. Why the Asian session is so popular in trading? Because many, I would say even most of traders, traded in a classical old-school way Asian session breakout. While this could generate great moves sometimes, many times, think about it, it's a very known concept, so it is very easy for the bigger money to go and to create some sort of traps and to catch this. Attempt by retail traders who are not aware of the traps. So how do we actually implement the breakouts of the Asian session ranges correctly? Should we actually focus on the Asian session breakouts, or there are better techniques that we would like to implement when trading the Asian session? And and the post-Asian session. So first of all, about the Asian session hours, also known as Tokyo session, okay? In most of the hours, it overlaps Sydney session from Australia. So I am based in New York or Toronto time, the EST time zone. So for me personally, this is the Asian session, 7 PM to 4 AM EST time. Um, Sydney session basically starts from 5 PM and lasts until 2 AM my local time. Please note that during the winter and the summer, the Asian session and Sydney session shift 1 hour back and, uh, and forward, uh, as per the season. Okay, so it's important to mention that because During the winter and the summertime, you would want to adjust your hours correctly and accordingly. So there are million, I would say, views how to work with the Asian session correctly. Here is what most traders do. Before I start with the charts, couple of words. This video is presented on C-Trader. Why cTrader? Endless amount of reasons. I have my own reasons why I started using this platform several months recently after I was exposed to this one, and I absolutely love it. Here are my reasons why I love it. So this specific video is on cTrader platform. Also, I want to mention or remind you, if you already watched my cTrader playlist, I created a dedicated playlist cTrader platform. You can find it right here, this playlist. And inside this playlist, what you will be able to find is how to use many of the great features the cTrader platform offers to you, and also different trading concepts, strategies, and trading methods. So make sure you watch this playlist if you still did not. So as you can see on the platform, I marked— pre-marked the range 7 to 4, 7 PM to 4 AM of my local time. One of the greatest comforts cTrader offers is if you go here to this zone right at the bottom, you can adjust that to your own time zone and the platform will adjust accordingly. Okay, very comfortable. Uh, so the hours you would see here basically hours that are active for me. Um, by the way, I love these hours as it's, uh, end of the day here, and I love to set up the, uh, triggers if, uh, there are any, um, before I go to bed. As simple as that. So, um, what instrument should you War during the Asian session. Of course, all the Asian pairs: Aussie dollar, Kiwi dollar, Euro Aussie, and also the Japanese pairs, right? The dollar yen, euro yen, and so on. But also the majors. So in this video, I will present examples on the euro dollar, not because this one is the only instrument to trade, because this one is one of the most popular instruments. And it is very active in a specific way, the way I will be presenting during the Asian session and the post-Asian session. But again, all the techniques I'm showing here you can also implement on the other instruments I mentioned, mainly with the Japanese instruments— dollar yen, euro yen, pound yen, and so on. Uh, so I'll be probably showing 2 methods here. One counter the pre-session to counter the mid-session. Okay, so what do I mean by that? Um, and also of course I will show the, the breakouts, which I will have to deal with fakeouts. So you know what, let's start with the fakeouts because, uh, it's much more popular. So most traders, what they do, if this is the Asian session as it is, they mark the low, the high, and during the next session they go with the breakouts. However, most of the times, keep in mind, the big money, uh, they know this kind of methods, and many times they will simply trap and simply create the opposite moves. Okay, so once again, let's say this was the session. As you can see, 7 to 4, right? The high, the low, And most traders, what they do is go and sell here as it breaks to the downside. The way I love to, uh, trade, and if you follow my channel, you know I love divergences. Divergence is a classical way where indicators, which indicate, and the price, which dictates what's coming next, they contradict each other. And the indicators indicated something might happen in a different way that the price presented before. For example, when the price breaks down but the indicator indicates something fishy is happening, that actually might be your help to understand that this is a trap. Indicators is all the mathematical formula of what happens behind the scenes, and many times— of course not always, there are no magical indicators— or anything like that. They could indicate and assist. They would not help understand what the market will do for sure, because there is no for sure in trading. Please understand that, because online you would find many videos with fake promises that this indicator will deliver that and this indicator will deliver that. You don't want to fall in this trap. Okay, so please understand, indicators indicate, price dictates. So the way I love to take the fakeouts is I mark the high and the low. This is the high, this is the low, right? HL of the Asian session. And the fakeout that happens during the following session, which is usually of course London and then the US session, basically what we do, what I want to see, is the price going below the low of the Asian session or above The high of the Asian session, the first to be cleaned, either the high or the low. And what I love to see there is that it happens here with what I call a divergence. So take a look what happens here. It happens to be breaking this low, right? Two ways to the downside. But look what happens between the most recent low. Lower lows on the chart, higher lows on the MACD histogram. If you don't have the MACD histogram, no problem. Go to this navigator or toolbar here, add indicator, find the MACD, and you would have that right here. So the divergence represents or indicates that something fishy might be happening as the price pushes down, but the indicators, the mathematics behind the, um, the price movement shows Higher lows. Something fishy. And that's where I love to trade the fake outs of, or the false breakouts, okay, of the Asian session. So we mark once again, we mark the high, we mark the low. The first to be cleaned in a fake direction, I trade until the end of the following session, either the London or the US session. Many times actually both, okay? So depends on what session you Uh, trade. Take a look what happens. Do we have a false breakout here also? Yep, take a look. Classical example. This is our Asian session in this range, right? So what we have here, the high, the low, and the first to be cleaned is the high with a bearish divergence. Higher highs on the chart, lower highs on the histogram. If you are not sure what divergences is all about, you can watch this video. It would give you some, um, better indication or understanding what divergences are. But also, if you want to take it to the next level, I invite you to our trading family, the Home Trader Club, where you will get your access to our full courses, comprehensive media zone full of webinars, live sessions Real-time trading education and real-time trading opportunities. Say no more. Follow the link below this video in the description. So what we have in that case, higher highs on the chart, looks like a breakout. Tons of traders buy this breakout while there is a bearish divergence indication that something fishy is happening. I would be selling with this breakout until the end of the next session, which is again the London session or the US session. As per the target levels, I would like to always look to get out around the next key levels if available, okay? Or if none, then by the end of the session. So this is how we treat the fakeouts, or to trade the opposite direction after the breakouts of the sessions. Please note, if there are no fakeouts, if the market just make the run, let it be. It could happen, but it's not as common and not as popular, um, as traders might think. The other way to work with the Asian session within the Asian session, and that's something I love to do a lot, is on the first part of the first half of the Asian session, get the move in specific direction. Let the market do the first session. Within this session, look for the divergences. So for example, if this is the Asian session we are talking about, right, that's where it starts, 7 PM my local time, EST time. You can check on your own local time of course and adjust the platform hours, as I explained in the beginning. So you— this is the mid-session, about so, right? Within the first half of the session, I want the move either to be up or down. And then within the session, I would be looking to opposite divergences. So for example, in that case, we have clear up move, higher highs, higher lows. But at some point here we started to see bearish divergence on the moving average of the MACD. This is for me a sign that I expect that during the second half of the session we will see opposite moves. Okay, uh, and I will get out of course by the end of the session if it didn't reach my targets. And if it did, I would be aiming to the next key levels here here. And if it did not by the end of the session, I am out. So this is one example. Uh, let's see if we have this another example here. This is the Asian session, starts from 7 PM to 4 AM. We have some, uh, uptrend. This is the half session, about so, right? So within the first half, I let it go either up or down. I don't, I don't do nothing. But inside the session, inside the half I'm looking for the bearish divergences. So we got higher highs on the chart, lower highs on the moving average of the MACD. Again, it means that during the second half of the session, most likely we should see the move to the downside. Okay, again, key levels here and here would be the potential targets, and if it doesn't reach any by the end of the session, I am Out. Let's see another one. What we have here also uptrend. Sorry, I took the wrong. No, Pepe. And again, half session is about here, right? So I don't do nothing as the session starts, but within the first half, I look for these conditions divergence. In that case, bearish divergence. I don't know to predict what the market will do, and I don't care. I want a divergence with to form. Within the first half. So higher highs in the chart, lower highs on the moving average on the MACD. During the second half, I expect to see the move down, and I expect it to reach the next key level, which is here, then potentially here. And if nothing happens, then by the end of the session, I am out. Small profit, small loss, or break-even, whatever the market gives. Okay, um, Of course, pay attention that if your trading opportunity, like in our case, within the first half of the session happens to be around key resistance, of course you have better chances to squeeze it out. Please know that the moves during the US session usually are not that big unless you go on the majors, unless you go to crosses like euro Aussie, for example, euro Kiwi, pound Aussie, pound Kiwi, uh, sometimes even the euro yen, pound yen. They could be Um, a little bit more or bigger moves. So again, depends how, uh, you like to work with it. I prefer the session to be more quiet and to get my 10, 15, 20, 30 pips, depends on the instruments. That's my personal preferences. Of course, if you love the bigger moves but also bigger risks, don't forget that you can check it out. And the same logic, absolutely the same, uh, on the crosses. So, uh, these are the, um, 2 ways I love to trade with during the Asian session. Why? Simply, I would say, experience. Or so many sessions, so many years, that's what I found happening the most of the times. Of course, not 100% of the times, but one of these techniques usually brings the moves I am looking for And it's— this is classical. And if you love the day trading, if you love even scalping, if you love, uh, to do short-term trading within the day, if you love to trade during specific hours of your availability— we are all busy people, yeah— then these strategies could be perfect for you. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask in the comments. And that's pretty much it for this video. So thank you very much for watching. I hope you found value in watching that, you learned something new or refreshed something old, um, this or other way around. If you did, please hit the like button. If you are new to our channel, please consider to subscribe, hit the subscribe button below this video. I want to invite you also to our trading family once again, Home Trader Club. Get your access our full courses, real-time trading opportunities, and real-time trading education, so much more. Follow the link below this video in the description. Thanks for watching. Best to you and yours. I'll see you soon with more. Good trading. Bye for now.