I seriously doubt a trader can make money especially good money with such tight stops. Also it would seem to be the Fast road to a nervous breakdown.
Hey FasterPussycat, howya goin' mate? Still flipping burgers, driving around your pee-yellow '69 Corvette and dreaming of being a "trader"?
Well, it's definitely different in different instruments ... Such as ES, which is heavily arbed, so you can't really trust 1-2T movements to any meaning anyway... Mind you though, my standard "emergency" stop bracket on DAX is 4T, and most of the time I won't let it get that far. Sure, 1T is just variance... It depends on the context. It's less about whether it's a tic up or down. It's more about why that tick went up or down... Was there a print on a tape? Which tape? What's the cumulative volumes? You can get to a point where you have so much of a "picture" that 1-2T can indeed tell you whether to get out or not, depending on what depths and tapes say (also/particularly on correlating markets) As for "perfect" entries; Well, I basically have 2 types of scalps: 1) The Limit; Always a limit order at a very good "discount", i.e. the maximum expected excursion. If it goes a couple of ticks against that, chances are I know what's wrong or right. Don't forget, there's more factors - like guessing where the stops are. Once the stops are being swept, you're either out or you're dead. After a while, you get to know where the stops sit (how far away people put them in your particular market) 2) The Chase; This one I will hit the bid/ask on a fast tape-breakout, when there's clearly a move to come. In this one - again - I will get out as soon as the momentum even remotely stalls. At least on partials. So, with most I do, my "stops" are absolutely minimal. Knowing when you're wrong sooner than everybody else is the key to success here. Again, it's the foot in the door thing. Mind you though, I usually trade partials. I'll have a hair-trigger-finger with the first half or third, but be a bit more patient with the second half... Depends. I definitely always try to get larger moves besides the scalps.
you dont "drive-in" the window do you drive-UP to the window duh. now "drive-ins" you actually drive IN. understand?