I am using a one minute ES chart with pivots to understand support/resistance levels. I also use a one minute NYSE $TICK chart. Your belief that scalping ES is very hard is accurate, and many of the trades I'd like to take are impossible because I can't get filled at the price I want. It took me over six months of closely watching market action tick by tick to get the results you are seeing. Many, many hours and a good sum of $ have been paid in tuition. I had to close a losing account because I tried to put real money to work before I was ready.
Thanks for the thoughts! Persistence always gets rewarded. Its heartening to see another trader succeeding at taming this monster with sheer hard work. What data provider are you using. How do you use $Tick in your trading? Curious, since I just use IB data which is not real tick data and don't subscribe to stocks data - so no access to market internals like dvol-uvol and $Tick. So, I don't have any experience with using market internals, other than looking at the charts ammo posts everyday
I wouldn't say I'm taming the monster, more like trying to stay out of the way of the randomly driven steamroller! You are right, it is hard work. I have a "blue collar" style of many small winners and a few small losers. Sometimes I get lucky and catch a good ride to a homerun, and occasionally I get unlucky (or stupid) and get struck out. I use the $TICK as a 'pressure' guage for overall market sentiment in real time. When the pressure gets too high in either direction it is likely the rubber band will "snap back" to equallibrium.
Thanks. In future once I get access to market internal data, I will find your insight useful. See you tomorrow.