Gnome -- I always thought so -- about day-trading being a sucker's game -- but now I'm not so sure. Ultimately, any successful trader needs to develop a style the fits his or her personality. I find the precision strike approach suits mine, given a method that offers reasonable positive expectancy. Sucker's game? I dunno. I can't get past the ultimate laws of entropy that govern the universe and impose their dynamic on all systems with increasing tyranny as the time frame expands. What am I saying here? I'm saying, personally, I'm more comfortable calling market direction over the next 15 minutes-to-hour, than I am at any time frame beyond that. I'm happy to "ride the wave" if a short-term trade appears to carry over into a longer-term chart, but, beyond that, it's in-and-out for me. On the other hand, I know next-to-nothing about anything, so perhaps this disquisition just goes to show what a sucker I am...
The biggest problem with scalping shorter timeframes is that most of the movement is just noise. How does a scalper determine which noise bit is tradable and which to pass up? Basically, he can't... not with any consistency. However, there usually are a couple of shots daily at fading the extremes of some sort of "noise range".... where the potential gain is, say, 6-12 ES points. If one *must* day trade, that's a better choice... the same can be done off of the daily charts, playing for moves of 5% or so.
Yes, sir. Exactly. You are singing my song. I am finding success with using larger (5 and 15 minute timeframes) to filter out the 1 and 2 minute chatter. Now the question is, where can I do this while holding down a 9-5 job on the eastern seaboard?
I was suggesting you try the same type of approach playing for daily chart swings of 5% or so. Then you won't have to watch the market hardly at all.
does that work? overnight scares me. problem is, for the first time, trading off the five and fifteen minute chart, i'm consistently profitable. on the bigger timeframes all i've done is bleed cash. go figure. on the other hand, perhaps i've learned from the shorter time frames, and now i can apply to the bigger time frames with greater confidence. wow, what a head game...
Yes, you'd have to hold overnight for that style. However, the perception of risk for holding overnight is wa-a-a-a-y overdone.
Live on the West Coast and trade European securities from 12:00 midnight to 8:30am... then go to work 9-5. This way you get a full day of trading! Don't forget the coffee....
If you were to train Dr. McCoy and Spock(excuse me I used to be a Star Trek geek) to trade the markets..... .....Hands down my money would go on Spock, Spock may not be a bot but he sure can suppress his emotions.
Fine, but Spock was (is?) half-human, and Vulcans are (were?) a carbon-based life-form. Perhaps we'd come closer to the mark if we mixed our Sci-Fi reference points: Who would you put your money on, Spock? Or Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey?
Hal flipped out in the first movie resulting in a death or two. As a result, I'd go with Spock - unless of course Spock happens to be experiencing Pon Farr (once every seven years). In that case, I'd check on the availability of Commander Data. - Spydertrader (also a Star Trek Fan)