Too stressful and too hard. Been there, done that. At a minimum, your method should try to capture a 0.5% fluctuation, so if ES is 1100, then that's 5.5 points. If you're not Marty Schwartz, then you shouldn't scalp.
I have scalped professionally with a direct connection to the exchange (member), and ultimately relocated offices to be within 300 metres of the exchange's hub for shorter latency . Large volume and tiny commish as we were bulk players. One of the most promising of the team was female, and it sure wasn't something she could teach. Theres is no way I could/would compete with them now I work from home and use a third party vendor/clearer, and I wouldn't advise anyone else to either... you don't have a chance non member tick scalping, besides you will go mad staring at one number, it really ain't no way to make a living. Kap
So no one is scalping the ES from home with success? I understand that 1/2 second latency can be a problem, but is that the straw that breaks the back? Surely there are traders with enough tape and chart reading skill to eke out a meager living, even under these conditions.
Not only is it my belief that there is no one scalping the ES or NQ from home, but I am nearly certain that there is not one _retail_ trader that has made money consistently over a period of two years doing _any_ kind of trading the ES/NQ, let alone scalping. nitro
That is a pretty bold (and completely wrong) statement. Not 1 retail trader who has made money consistently for 2 yrs trading the ES or NQ? Without thinking too much I know of 3 off the top of my head. Two of them just don't make rent money but they make a lot of money.
Sure nobody is making any money. Nobody that spends a lot of time reading these boards makes money because there are a lot of sour grape "traders" wasting time looking for comfort.
Hi Torge, Learn to understand that you will lose often daytrading, but you don't have to lose overall. Then learn to understand how your trading vehicle tends to trade. That takes a lot of time watching\trading the same index - stock - etf - whatever. Also - friends don't let friends scalp the eminis on options expiration week. I trade NQ and monday and tuesday have had way too much chop for me to be very successful attempting to scalp. Today I scored a 16 tick move NQ = 8 pts. - bought 1395 sold 1403 (I was in the trade 2 hours) I suppose an equal trade for ES would be 16 ticks = 4 pts. (the money on NQ being 2.50 less per tick of course) Nice as it was to score the 8 pointer, it only brought me back to minus 1 pt, minus - 20.00 bux on my P&L, because I had had a succession of trades from the first hour trying to go long and getting stopped out for minus 3 - minus 2.5 etc., etc. Then I made a one point scalp in the afternoon and brought P&L to 0.00. I figured that was a good stopping point for today. (tuesday) Yesterday was a very similar day for me. A six point trade in addition to some 1's and 1.5's made the difference from my smaller losses etc. ( but I still finished the day small red after commissions.) Tomorrow may be entirely different - tomorrow may be my best trading day ever. I enter each day telling myself that. I enter each trade expecting to make money. But if I don't - I'm out small. (I do have many good days - weeks) Each trading day has the potential to be different (right now we seem to be in a tightening range), but generally speaking, I go for my bigger trades in the morning and late afternoon and my small scalps during deadzone hours (generally 11:15 am until around 2:00pm) Sometimes I do real well doing this. So if I have a week that's starting out like this one has - I don't let that give me a defeatist attitude. When someone tells you that you can't make money scalping the ES or that you can't do this or that, what they are really saying is that they tried it and didn't find it to their liking. (I don't find pure scalping to my liking either) I'll be first to admit that I'm not a true scalper - I seek 3 - 4 - 6, sometimes 12 *or more* point moves on NQ etc. However, I've made quite a few 1/2 and 1 pt. plays during the day that do add up over time. As nitro and gnome (both of whom's opinions I respect ) have said on this thread - true scalping and nothing else may belong to the pro firms with the advantage of cheaper commissions - connectivity etc. and for the little guys it may very well be a fools errand. Now here comes the but (some say that everything that comes after the *but* is bull$h*t...lol..) nevertheless after spending some time daytrading a vehicle that you have come to know over an extended period of time, even the little guy can see a a few bucks just lying there and snatch it up. All in all I do agree with nitro and gnome's posts. (I know that they are talking apples and I'm talking oranges so to speak) If you plan to *daytrade* the ES or NQ then work with your strategy until you can find something that works more often than not. I would suggest to go for bigger intraday moves generally, (here's another but) after you have traded the same vehicle for a while and you see a few bucks just sitting there, by all means, snatch it up. I have come to the end of quite a few days with my P&L a 100 to 200 bucks higher just from scalping a succession of .5's - 2's etc. during low volume deadzone. Granted I may have 50 to 75 bux added to commissions from doing so - but I cannot dismiss that I come out ahead in the end more often than not. What I'm getting at is that going for bigger moves when applicable, make the money and a few scalps when you know that they are there for the taking, just add to the money and can make the scalps *worth it*!!! I realize that I am not talking about pure scalping here. ( I know nitro - apples and oranges - nitro is talking size - whereas I'm talking piker...lol) A combination of swings and scalps do payoff, though. Like island0004, I too am a small fish and don't mind saying so. Also like him, I am a survivor and small money maker. My plan is to get rich slowly - grow my funds and eventually do some longer term holding. I believe that there is also much money to be made in holding for weeks - months. However, during certain times and under certain conditions during the day, I'll see a scalp play and snatch that few dollars. Best regards, plumlazy
Hello folks: I haven't read all the posts, however some of them surprise me and I just couldn't resist commenting on this subject. First, I scalp the ES EVERY DAY. I adjust my approach to scalping based on season, analysis of prior market action, analysis of average range, reports, etc. I use stop limit orders because they are native. I have automated my order execution so that all I do is choose the point of entry. My risk is always .5pt. Over the long term, 2 years, I have found my system to have an edge. At certain times of the year, I use this scalp system to "mine" the market for positions that can be held as longer term trades (up to 2 hours). I was not able to make a profit until I learned to vary position size. It took a long time to make this work. In my opinion, scalping requires concentration, and a very thoughtful approach.