The trading day is not uniform. Liquidity, spread, halt probability and the kind of participant on the other side all change through it, and the setups that work in one window are actively bad in another.
| Window | Character | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| 04:00 to 09:30 | Thin, wide spreads, headline-driven | Deciding. Build the list, read the filings, set the levels. Not sizing. |
| 09:30 to 10:30 | Maximum volume and volatility, most halts | Executing decisions made earlier. Gap-and-go, first pullback, squeeze. |
| 10:30 to 12:00 | Volume decays, ranges tighten, false breaks rise | Second-chance setups: VWAP reclaim, failed-breakout shorts. |
| 12:00 to 15:00 | Lowest liquidity of the regular session | Doing less. Where overtrading and revenge trading concentrate. |
| 15:00 to 16:00 | Volume returns, closing imbalances build | Trend continuation and closing-auction positioning. |
| 16:00 to 20:00 | Earnings, 8-Ks, offerings priced after the bell | Reviewing, logging, and reading tomorrow's structure. |
The Today board exists to make this concrete: it lays the session out as a checklist with each item attached to the board that answers it, so the decisions happen in the window built for deciding and the execution window is only execution.