I have been scalping ER2 for a long time and from that I moved over to CL. Scalping in both of those markets involves fading moves when I sense that an intraday move or flurry is meeting resistance or seems to lose steam. I am in my element in those markets and move in an out of them with confidence. The crazier the action the easier it is to scalp in it. As a challenge I have tried the DAX futures and it is a fantastic trading instrument. In addition of being a roughly $250K contract the one side rate at IB is $1.30 or so and with the unbundled pricing it drops to $1.10. after the 300th lot for the month. I scalp with a relatively small account and I am milking it regularly but in the DAX it did not work well because one should not fade that market and definitely should not average with a small acount and it does not make sense to trade for a few ticks when a well placed stop can put you in a five/ten minute swing that may be good for $500/$1000. So I think because of it's large value swings compared to its tick size and commission structure the DAX is a very good swing trading vehicle. I gave up scalping DAX because I decided that being in control (even in chaotic conditions in ER2 or CL) is important to me and in DAX I can't have that. Something else came out of my experimenting with DAX, it forced me to think directionally. In the past two years I got so involved in scalping that I lost my patience with swing and position trading. Well, we are in the mids of some amazing an potentially even more amazing market moves in currencies, equities and commodities where one should get on the train and ride it, so I am re training myself to do just that. I would advise any new trader not to trade DAX but other instruments where they have a chance to not lose control of the process. The gang at "Shorted DAX at 7740" thread ASusulovic and JSSPMK and a few others are doing a fantastic job, all swing traders, I take my hat off to them. Best, GC
I trade DAX on very short time frmae, but not scalping. Usually my trades last few minutes. They last seconds usually when I am immediatly wrong after entry, and I am eaither stopped out or just close position myself. DAX is a really great contract to trade. My time zone (new York ) is not the best one for openening hours trading, but doable.
6am/7am EST (New York) is often an interesting time in the DAX. Often you see trend reversals with the US crew coming online
I am usually done by this time. My main trading hours are 3-5am. I would stay longer if something going on or some major news like ZEW.