Saxon22 and Nutsneal, Saxon22, did you miss fully reading all of the post by Nutsneal? It is on page 21 of this thread. Sounds like Nutsneal is actually doing what you asked about originally. Yet, you haven't responded to his post yet -- at least not to the main part of what he said. Nutsneal said that he had some other suggestions and I would like to hear what they are. Thanks!
Having a system that does win 90+%, I can say that it is possible to grab 1/4 point. Here's how. The only way is to find a system that has a signal that yields a high enough probablity of getting at least a half point before exiting. Here's what I do: a enter at market, and when I have a 1/2 point or a 3/4 point I set the trailing stop at what is equivalent to scalping for a quarter point. Sometimes all I get is that quarter point and that's fine, because I win enough of the time to get it. But there are other times where the 1/2 point trigger and 50% trailing stop gets way more than just a lousy quarter point. I only recommend this strategy for use on tick charts, the ES and er2.
I think a big part of why there's so much dissent here is because scalping ES w/ a retail setup from a normal DSL line is probably close to impossible. Thats probably what most guys here have expirience with (retail). And thats probably why guys are saying you can't buy bids, etc. Scalping like this is something pro's do, because they have the setup and have learned from other pro's. The offers they lift or bids they hit are stuff that without a pro connection you probably won't see when they become good. I trade a block away from the merc in an office w/ a 20mg direct line, and when there's an order that the whole market wants it still goes faster than we can see, and you won't get it untill you saw it ahead of time and were ready to pounce.
If you take the theoretical price of ES at any time as half way between the bid and ask then the profit you are theoretically making only every buy and sell is 6.25 dollars, Not $12.5. After paying $2.5 commission you only have 3.75 dollars to play for. And dont think you can increase your profit past 6.25, when you think you can predict which the market is going you probably wont get a fill.
While you're on the subject of speed of the internet, I would consider this. A regular t1 line has 2 1.5Mb pipes, an out and an in. For those of us with just a regular internet connection, I would say that it is possible if you have a connection rated 5 MBps to be just as fast as the others. Most people also haven't taken the time to invest in truly high speed computers that are designed for trading.
the bandwidth of your internet connection is a SMALL part of the equation. Your IPS only quote you with the "Last Mile" speed. i.e. from his server to your home. Here's how you can check the rest of the bottleneck. 1. you can do a route trace to see how many intermediate stops are there between you and your broker. http://www.pcpitstop.com/internet/tracert.asp (assuming you don't have to worry about the link between your broker and the exchange.) 2. you can check the speed between major routers. This is important if you are overseas. http://www.speedtest.net/ http://www.internettrafficreport.com/main.htm attention: pls post your results here. This will be an educational exercise.