1. What do you prefer to scalp? A single stock or a index. 2. How many cents do you target on average. 3. How many shares do you average buying at a time? Thanks
When scalping, I feel its best to have fixed targets. You gotta make your fixed target bigger than your risk, but how much bigger depends on how high your historical hit rate is and what kind of size you are doin'... Just make sure expectancy E - commissions > 0, where E - commissions = [hit% x (size of win)] - [lose% x (size of loss)] Cos each person has his own trading size and his own hit rate, its difficult to give a standard answer... test the waters and try and discover by trial and error trading what works for you...
high volume trending stocks that either are near or within an index... net dollar value, not cents per trade is another measure of success or objectivity that allows for flexibility in these horrid markets... by concentrating on 2 or 3 key stocks, and using a sliding scale percentage of buy power, I never risk more than can be recovered in a few trading days. for example, say your buy power is $100,000; using 10%-15% would be $10k-$15k, however many rounded to the lowest 100, share increments that equates to for that stock and those trading conditions. AMR 3.97-1.03 (3:05pm EST) would equate to 2,500 shares or $10k. given its high volume characteristics, your order would disappear in the crowd. however, AMD 8.32+.29 would equate to 1,200 shares, and would defintly effect the markets if that order showed up, and would require multiple smaller orders up to that target share size. --------- I posted this method in reasonable depth to withstand scrutiny, and to provoke others to follow that lead... we complain over the negativity in these board rooms, and with due cause, primarily due to the losses in the markets, and the losses in our accounts (this is called dissillusionment), and this is natural we complain over the "Elite Trader of Yore" and with good reason. perhaps substantive comments like these will restore ET to its former status, and be worthwhile to others also... ---------- ok, I've thrown down the gauntlet don't feel that your particular method of trading is that unique, that it shared, won't work any more, or you're not intelligent enough to find another, should it stop working or yielding what it did before....
Another question about scalping. What are the typical win/loss rates? The reason that I ask is that it seem to me that when you're scalping ... your win/loss rate is lower. I have been using a scalping system that produces about 53% so far. I was initially very disappointed with my win/loss ratio but now I'm finding out that it's typical for that style of trading.
Typically I risk 2 points to make 2 points minimum with my signal being a moving average crossover. Win/loss ratio after 500+ trades is at 53%. Average winner is 2.63. Average loser is 1.75 including breakevens. I use a trailing stop to get flat ... no reversals. Simple system.