Like I said, I take what the market gives me. The trade starts as a scalp but if it moves, I'll let the winner run, it's the only way to beat the game by letting positive expectancy take care of business. What is scalping considered here, playing for 2-3 ticks per trade? If so, how do you battle comm, slippage, losers, kind of tough. Incognito
That's why scalping is considered to be tough: because it's the hunt for several ticks and often is done without any charts at all (off DOM or tape). That's why most scalpers are institutional (they have lower commissions) or prop (for the same reason).... Pretty hard to consistently scalp on high frequency (of say 100-200 trades a day) with retail commissions... BTW that's why also retail scalpers like DAX futures. Commission/tick relation is good there. Two ticks (nothing for this beast) is 5 times more than retail round turn.
i do the same however, i use pivot points & MACD (to determine direction of trade) on 4 time frames/charts to do my scalping. target: 2 points per trade.
I trade the NQ as well. There are a few great threads on price action in this forum but any addition would be great. There is so much witchcraft vendors out there that it is very difficult to learn how to trade. Your concept of entering after stops are run are interesting. Look forward to seeing some of your charts.
yep, that's a pro maneuver. no wonder you haven't looked back. Sort of the opposite of chasing which you CANT do when scalping. Sounds like you trade similar to myself, but I don't scalp per say. maybe half a dozen trades per day, aiming for 5 to 20 points on each, depending on the market. I also like to cover half at first target and ride half. i use no indicators, just price action and volume. i trade other shit too (ES/ER2/ZB, etc.). Jay
definitely not scalping. you will attract more people to your thread if you rename it "day trading NQ" true scalping is maybe 2 to 4 tics, done over and over again all day. high accuracy (70%+), and almost nil commish required. need to be able to pay exchange member type rates to do this.
Basically, to me, you are saying that you are a reversal swing day trader at key S/R levels who takes a second time through bounce off below support or resistance. IMHO, day swing trading boils down to correct identification of turning points and congestion breakouts as a reversal or continuation. It is gambling unless you can identify those points correctly more often than not, whoever you are - breakout or reversal trader or both. Do you wait for a full 3point stop loss all the time or do you take smaller losses or break evens once the trade moves against you after small gain? If you wait for the full loss, you might want to entertain the idea to try to get out at 1-2 ticks above/below the entry point to cover the commissions once it moves against you. If trade goes my way 4-5 ticks, I move my stop (I trade NQ breakouts) 1 tick above to cover commissions. True breakouts never look back. My initial stop loss is 2 points away but I will often bail out at 4-6 ticks. Experience showed that it is cheaper to trade this way, at least for me. You get stopped out more, but it gives you a lot more chances to catch a trend with cheaper costs in the process. What would be interesting for me to discuss is how to improve this identification process. I have been trading live for few months live and six months on simulator before that. Still long way to go... I came to the conclusion that indicators lag, you might be able to get smth out of them but your brain would need to see thousands of instances and you would end up with few patterns based on indicator which still lags. I am going different way, trying to read PA only, any help in this direction is mucho appreciated.
I'll tell you about scalping .. making 844 ticks in a 150 point daily range, been there, I have a bottle under my desk to piss in because I know I will be out of the "price action" zone if i visit the bathroom. Been at it for ten years, the last 6 successful, regular 6 figs GBP per annum but never managed to break the 7. Sure I have still things to learn, doubt much from this ET crowd, I'm not one of the sheeple, its my living, and i do ok thankyou, interested in discussion from the non punter muppets, you know who you are. Subscribers here by thousands float, And jostle one another down, Each paddling in his leaky boat, And here they fish for gold and drown. Now buried in the depths below, Now mounted up to heaven again, They reel and stagger to and fro, At their wits' end, like drunken men. Meantime, secure on Garraway cliffs, A savage race, by shipwrecks fed, Lie waiting for the foundered skiffs, And strip the bodies of the dead. HPT.