When I say spu's ticking up or down I am always looking at a tick chart, if I see the line is ready to either roll over and head down or head up, if the line is treading at the bottom of my screen then I look for it to break and go south, all the while listening to the squak box to see if they are going to sell or buy. I do not have the number of the Spu's on my screen. I load up on plenty of shares when I see the Spu's breaking levels on the 10 minute chart. This style of trading is extremely difficult and requires a lot of gut feel, sometimes one trade makes or breaks the day.
By no means do I just loss 2 cents, when Mer moves around like that he can be painful. Cutting loses in the key to my trading, I never know where the market is going nor for howlong, the only information that I trade on is what is happening in the market currently, since this is the case I must get out of my trades the second that I am wrong! Thus if MER is showing 250 X 10 at 44.40 44.42 , I grab the .42 stock and then if it didn't go up in the exact time that he is supposed to get up then I get out at .40 and take my two cent spread. Now, with a 5 cent spread. 55 X 310 at 44.95 45.00 If they start taking the 45 stock and I grab a coulpe of shares, but the spus loose their momentum and I see them getting ready to turn over, then I through out limit orders to get out at .99 .98 and then que up my montage to sell at the market, hopefully there are enough buyers that Mer will print .05 and get me out, but if not I will already have my exit ready. This is super fast trading as you know, I am trying to stay one step ahead of where the prints are going to be. I always obey the rule "When it is not doing what it is suppossed to doing get out!!" This way I keep my loses as small as possible. Mer is a tricky guy, do you trade MWD along with him? He can be fun as well.
I doubt that there is anyone that uses automatic software to scalp. It is such a gut trading style, I make trades based on what I hear the squak doing, and depending on the sentiment of the market, different scalping strategies work at different times.
Pitufo, Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I trade MWD along with MER. They are probably the two most frustrating stocks I trade. The rest of my stocks are NASDAQ, which I much prefer. I keep thinking about dropping MER and MWD, but I feel like I should try to develop at least some ability to trade listed stocks, and they keep making me money. I would be happy if I could just take out the offer or hit the bid instantly. Oh well... Good luck to you - I'll probably be on the other side of some of your MER MWD trades .
To Eldredge... as far as scalping MER .. it seems pretty tough.. especially when there are spreads such as that.. high bid low offer is the key to any scalping method.. I don't find many people who can consistently get paid on those positions....without losing your whole account now and then.... if you really see yourself scalping ... you have to trade with a smaller spread.. pump shares in INTC, CSCO, MSFT, AMAT.. those are the ones I have found pretty successful...
I scalp with Underground Traders. Jea Yu is good; has a good system for scalping. I had a fierce learning curve but now can make money. Tough market now without volume. After reading praetorian 2 am going to look again into futures, e-minis. But I think of the futures as a lead indicator. What does a futures scalper use as a lead indicator? honus
Do you listen mostly to Mark Haines, Maria, or Joe Kernan? Just kidding. Seriously how long did it take for you to be able to understand the guy on the real squawk? They always sounded like a bad horse race announcer to me.
Its not too tough to follow those squawk box guys....but dont alway listen when they say some house to buy....for example Merrill to buy , Merrill to buy.....listen if the number are getting higher or lower....because Merrill may be buying but this buying pressure is being absorbed by the sellers....I use the squawk to trade the market like Bachelier....and I think the firm can get by because they have their own software and the commissions they pass on to you are dirt cheap....but u will never get those rates as a client...and its true that by bidding and offering on certain ecn's you get credits and can actually pay no fees...and make money on commissions by just bidding and offering all day....there are some traders that do it....however im not one of them....but my commissions can amount to $100 for every 100,000 shares I trade...which isnt bad....but then again...I only get a small percentage of my net profits....... Happy Trading to all
"Are you saying you personally trade 750,000 - 2,000,000 shares per day? I've never heard of anyone trading that kind of volume. If so that is impressive!!!" Well thanx. I'd rather have the same profit at eod with less turnover, making higher margins. "What is your average profit per share?" Like .05c a share net if I average winning and losing days. "I may be confused, but are you saying that you pay .2c per share? I trade NYSE stocks and I always thought that it was cheaper to trade them than NAS. If you trade .002 per share on, let's say 500,000 shares that is only $1,000, this is incredibly cheap. I believe I am confused in my thinking. Please correct me if I am wrong. If I pay .0075 a share to trade NYSE and trade 500,000 a day then I have to make $3,750 to break even, I would love to only pay $1,000. (Actually the cost is a little more for NYSE because of SEC charges, those babies really add up.) Please let me know if the NAS is cheaper? Thanks. Hey, I am not familiar with what you said about the Squak "Gooood morning laddddies and Gentlemeeenn!". There are a couple of companies that provide the Spu's, I listen to the Squak Box, I turn it on 2 minutes before the market opens so maybe I miss that part. If you listen to the Squak Box as well, do you pay for it yourself, or is your company flipping it. I trade in an office all by myself and I would love to know if there are any cheaper forms of getting the squak, I don't like the internet version because it is a second slow. I am looking to cut my telephone bill down though. Any ideas, please shoot them over." I am not familiar with NYSE or the fees they charge. I can say the following about my deal; 1) Firm charges me very low commissions + SEC fees, I only get a small draw of net profits. 2) the cheapest fills are the hardest to get, the more expensive ecn's are the last to leave a diminishing price level. -To the N(o)TRD ecn (1.5c p/s fee): What the hell are those N(o)TRD's doing on SUNW? Nobody cares to hit the ecn unless one is almost sure to make a 2 cent profit on them. Do you guys get 1c. per share rebate bidding and offering on that ecn?? The firm provides us with an internet version of the squawk. I don't believe it's any slower. It is pretty much in line with the minis. "So say you were looking at the actual price and it changes fractionally higher, would you consider this an uptick in regards to you then buying stock?! If so you would be buying and selling literally every second of the day! So please let us know how you define an uptick in the SPUS that would result in you buying one of the stocks you trade. THanks.' if the spus tick up a handle or more, I would almost definitely want to own the stock. .5 points or less: I would look for a long play or stay neutral, depending on the stock. Would be very restrictive in going short. "Bachelier/pitufo: Do you guys trade manually or is it automatically through software?" Manually in that my finger presses the button, the software takes care of the rest. ;-) Good luck to any of you! Cheers, Bachelier