no..you really dont need a lot of data. that is why pattern recognition is so important right now in trading. faster to trade off someone elses pattern than build your own. Algo hunting is about to get real
its actually just visual pattern recognition. right now humans are the best at it. but computers are fastly catching up..recognizing their algo patterns which are always the same you can make money fading the algo moves..its the new scalp...band the inside mkt spread with limit orders to sell and buy 2 and 3 levels out and band the mkt. this way u catch the momentum ignition algos..they mean revert..and ur in at the top
What makes you think they are profiting from scenario 1 or 2? These trades can be the losing side of a hedge or arb position. Maybe that's why you are allowed to tag along. What makes you think all the spikes you are witnessing are the same robot? Have you looked at the Volume Profile of those spikes to see what trades took place at each price level, what was the POC/VWAP for those spike bars, what trades were passive and what were aggressive? Are you watching the Pulling and Stacking of orders at the price levels of the spike bars and price levels immediately before the spike occurs? Are you reviewing the time stamps to the microsecond of the passive vs aggressive orders and the pulling and stacking for velocity markers. Generally this type of 'fade the robot spike' trade setup doesn't last very long. Exploit it while it lasts. It will disappear before you know it.
actually...i have checked to nano second time stamps and it the algo becomes the aggressor at the top of the upfire..and i am passive with my limit sell. unusual for my sell limit in time stamp to be on the time n sales as a buy..
yes. that is exaclty what you do.. you place a limit roder to get fileld above the mkt just outside an arbitrary stadnard deviation point and just keep moving your orders in your own price band. You will be surprised how often you can catch a few great trades.