If you are using buy stops and sell stops to enter, you may want to use buy stop LIMITS and sell stop LIMITS. This way you can enter with larger lot size but not have to worry about eating 4+ ticks - either your order will be filled at your price levels or it won't. The downside is you may see partial fills but I would rather have 15 running on a winning position than 10.
You've got patience Gov that's for sure. I don't know that I could wait and wait for my limit to be hit. Guess that's why I use MIT's to exit. For me, it's not worth having a retracement over 1 or 2 ticks and since the ER2 can easily snap back, I prefer MIT's on exits.
Today was the lowest volume in er2 in over 2 weeks, so that could explain some extra slippage. I trade in 15-30 lots, but never during lunch because of the liquidity. I dont generally deal with to many problems, but its damn frustrating to get printed on an exit, no fill and get stopped out. The er2 is growing everyday, so hopefully it will get better and better. I also scale in and scale out as well to make sure I dont get partialed.
Yes, patience makes money, but tr51 asked about orders of more than 10 cars. The couple ticks you mention will all be due to you--and then some--if you enter a large market order in ER2. It is possible of course to trade this way, but I think the loss on the stop might get quite large most times. Ultimately, tr51 might want to try upping the size to say 20 limit buy, see what gets filled then see how the exits go. Couldn't hurt...much.
I guess the MIT order is the equivalent of the "trade out" button I am used to. It gets the current number of contracts long/short and sweeps/markets everything out?
Gov....tks for the input. I'm going to stick to 10 until I see a good increase in the volume. Of course if the emini smooths out some (less noise) I may go back and trade some cars there.
MIT exits just mean Market If Touched. In other words, instead of sitting at a price level with a limit order hoping I am at the front of the line or it trades through the price, as soon as the market hits that price level my exit automatically becomes a market order. Advantage is that you will get out. Disadvantage is that you will get out at the current price which many times is a tick less than your price level. Once in a while if the market is blasting off you can actually get a better price since it's a market order. For me, the MIT's are a great way to exit as with my trading methodologies I have seen MANY, MANY times where my exit price levels are tipped and then price retreats back. And to turn a winning trade into a losing trade over 1 tick is just not worth it to me. If your exits are routinely taken out with limits, I would stick with limits. If your exits are sometimes hit and then retreat, I would give some consideration to MIT orders.