Nalinee Prasert ·
The US open from a desk in Khlong Toei
Session timing for breakout traders in Bangkok: when the range is yours to watch, when it belongs to another timezone, and why we write hours on the worksheet.
Several seats in each intake trade gold or a US index after dinner. That is a legitimate way to live in this city. It is also how people skip the range they marked at 20:00 and start trading the first violent minute after 20:30 as if it were a planned close.
We ask evening traders to name two clocks on the risk sheet: the hours they will watch, and the hours they will not. A breakout during the first fifteen minutes of the US cash open is a different animal from a close at the end of a quiet Asia morning. If your plan was a daily close beyond last week's high, the open auction is not that close.
There is a practical courtesy in the classroom. If you are tired on a Tuesday at 21:00, you may say so and sit on your hands for the rest of the night. That is not a lack of commitment. Falling asleep on a stop is more expensive than missing a poke.
For SET-only traders the problem is inverted: the session ends while London is still stretching. Do not drag a SET breakout into after-hours prints you do not usually honour. Mark the official close you will use, then go home.
Write the hours. Read them back. If your life in Bangkok cannot support those hours this month, shrink the plan. The market will still be there on the next intake's calendar.