I reside in NYC so the internet connection here is pretty good. I would worry about it if I were trading from rural Oklahoma or southern Australia (no punt intended T28 ).
The whole thing is a one big learning experience and boy am I learning! In my line of work I am used to being always right, so you could only imagine how I felt when some of you ripped "my system" to pieces. I admit, I needed it, to realize that making money trading is not easy by a long shot.
I read the whole post and it seems that HE can pull it off. However, the reason for his success is experience and many battle scars that made him a master trader. I could attempt to implement his way of getting 1/4 filled but it seems to me that to do it, one must be really good at trading and I am NOT. I will keep his system in mind but for now I realized that taking 1/4 from the market is not as easy as it once seemed to me.
I am glad that the system I tried to devise has been used by the pros. Unfortunately, it seems that it is not something that could be copied by retail traders and much less nubies like me. Maybe in a distant future I will pul it off, but as for now, it is back to T28's approach which as he calls it quiet correctly, is both simple and profitable.
Do you really need something super high tech to trade the markets????? I doubt it. A regular pentium 4 with 1 gig of ram a graphic card that can handle up to 4 monitors and 2 hard drives would be more than enough.
Indeed, I don't know if I mentioned this but I've traded the same way out of an office in pennsylvania before with a 10meg pipe and only three traders using it...it was ok for a bit but we started getting lag when there was a glitch with a server in DC, we couldn't scalp with it, when your used to being able to hit prices on "the turn" it all counts. So basically, yes to trade a style where speed is important, you have to have a direct connection to the exchange.
even 3.75 per contract is not bad if: 1. you could it all day long with very high win ratio (super hard to do) 2. you trade 100 or 200 lots per trade It is not the amount of money that one makes on this type of set up that is in question.
Looks like a cash register at a local Mc Donald. I guess if trading does not pan out, one could easily re-train to start a new career at a local fast food joint.
the problem is, the market has an uncunning way to fake you, fade you, then fuxk you. let me give you another example: say, you got filled at 1330.00. you are carrying 100 lot, each tick is worth $1250.00 the market is hovering at bid 1330, ask 1330.25, and you feel good about it. then the market moves to bid 1329.75, ask 1330.00 well, what do you do? theoretically you are still in the game. but what if the market spikes to 1329.5/1329.75? "Spike" is a term you give the market in hindsight. You won't know it is a spike until 2~ bars later. If it is not a spike, then the best you can get out is minus 0.50pts. That's $2500 right there !!! (probably it happens in 5 seconds.) Of course you won't get out. Because you have observed that the market makes a lot of minar oscillations. YOu wait... two possible scenario can happen: 1. It keeps on going down and you get out at market. The fill is at minus 3/4pt. 2. it goes in your direction, you got your 1/4pt, then the market continues on its way to a leisurely 2~3 pt swing. BTW, as liquid as the ES market might be, having a 100 contract retail order filled is NOT as easy as some thought. YOu can safely expect a 30 lot order filled in a flash, but you surely don't want to carry any partially filled order in a fast market that is going against you. Sigh, the market is ruthless. It takes pleasure in our humiliation. Don't let me discourage you. I said it is difficult to scalp 1/4pt in ES -- as a retail trader. A prop firm might be able to help. They usually have faster connection than your home office. By "Faster", I mean a connection into the floor or a market maker.