We strongly encourage our new traders to quickly get up to a level where they can actually make a decent living. Since the volatility and many stock prices are so low, there is actually less risk when trading 4,000 + (since you are more likely to get better fills and price improvement). We had a meeting with our brand new bootcampers (4 weeks in), and they are in the 1500-2500 share range now and doing fine....we hope that by the end of November that they will be comfortable with 4,000 on the openings, and 3,000 - 6,000 during the day on their core stocks (their "children"). Trading in small lots greatly reduces your chance of success. You're likely to have your 500 -1000 shares filled just before a print up or down a dime or more (where the 5,000 share orders participate at the better price, or actually dictate the better block print price......you'll see this via the "New York Open Book" .... which is a necessity for decent trading these days. (and in case you're thinking "more shares = more money for Bright Trading"...."forget about it".... we revamped our pricing to accomodate the larger share size....so the traders get a much better deal on shares over 1,000 per trade). Don
It seems to me that if I was to trade 4000 shares I would buy up the market and brive the price up. The the opposite when I get out? It seems much harder to trader that size lot?
Now, come on....the first thing I tell all traders and "advice seekers" when asked "how do I pick out a stock to trade?" is "Be sure it trades at least a couple of million shares per day. Check the the NYSE open book quote (don't trade without it, as they say)....and you'll see the breadth of the market. My college class homework assignment last week was to define "depth of market" and "breadth of market" as it would pertain to the trading of their stocks. (You probably have something as it would pertain to some of those "Nazty" stocks)....LOL.... Don
Right, standard number for "size" is usually 10,000 shares, right? That's considered a "block trade." Don
whats a good commision charge per share when your scalping stocks, I'm talking to a couple of firms and they both scalp, in other words, what would be the highest a firm would charge before it is not worth to scalp equities? thanks
A good rule for short term traders is to go in and out on blocks as a partial fill size. My in to out ratio is 20/30 for about 10% of total days volume. I never trade over 10% of the total volume on any given day. This is not scalping stuff. It is for a 10% profit over 3 to 4 days.
You have to be able to get in and out for less than a penny in costs to keep a profit for yourself (when trading for pennies)....we generall shoot for 2 cents, with the bulk going to the trader. I just want to point out that scalping is just one small part of overall trading, and that our guys who are using the automation for scalping are still doing a lot of outside enveloping, pairs, etc. For the last year or so, a good trader must "multi-task" to make a good living. Don
i usually go for a .5 - 1.0 cents .. i am only started trading for a month now... i don't know where u would actually look for a 3-4 cent win also i like to do a lot of trades a day.. usually 30 and up!