This entire premise of high frequency manual trading, of scalping, of daytrading - the odds are just really daunting these days. Intentionally choosing to compete directly with machine-created turbulence that operates without emotion and in a rules-based realm - on a tic-by-tic basis. The concept that some kid in Boise with a PC, a $5K IB account, and some common TradeStation indicators wants to survive in that timespace occupied by the automatrons... I find that to be naive and a bit depressing. The concept of some guy manually scalping 300 positions per day with a mouse and a keyboard as an effective strategy that endures and holds up over time is incredibly rare. Not impossible, but rare. In that respect, I am afraid that I would agree with EMG about the success rates for retail traders. The notion of someone opening an account with $5K to scalp ES based upon tic data and common variations of standard technical indicators is just nonsensical in this day and time - might have worked swimmingly in the past, but the bots and the algos dominate the domain in today's environment. All of these fresh young faces looking to learn to daytrade with that image which endures circa 1998 tech boom or those silly youtube promotional videos - well, good luck. It is a complete waste. A meatgrinder, a virtual waste dump for broken and naive souls perpetuated by retail brokers and "training" educators and charting package providers. Look at 90 % of the forum material on ET. Every day we see a fresh thread started by some fresh faced kid wanting to learn how to day trade, or scalp, or trade 'price action'. The pity is that some of those naive newbies ultimately would have made excellent traders. You just cannot be common. You must Zig when the everyone else is Zagging - and I am not talking about fading markets. I am speaking strictly about strategy. The last thing you need to be doing in the marketplace is replicating what you perceive to be some sort of "blueprint" defined by others living off your vigorish.
It is very easy to make money trading if you can develop money management skills including not over trading or revenge trading. However, to develop these skills with real money is 70% of the plan. The next step is to either reinvent the wheel by trying to develop your own edge or get help from a mentor. An edge being defined as something that will give you the ability to recognize a profitable setup. In poker, everyone knows that 2 aces are a great starting hand. Very few people know what a good setup is in trading. Most books on trading have no reliable setups. Most Internet Web sites selling trading systems or rooms don't work. Most people rather go for a 5 tick or pip win with a 25 tick or pip stop. Most people believe that having a higher win% is better. Most people are wrong.
I can show you what to do and how to structure your learning process for a negotiated fee or if you prefer for a hourly charge. Before we begin any discussions you'll need to provide proof of programming competency and knowledge in statistics.
====================== Pondering man. Trading is more difficlult than investing ;; =========================; so lets mention easier of the 2 ,,investing.William O Neill [IBD]notes its like becoming like a med DR[college, med school..] And then there is intern/low pay/long hours.. ======================================== Your own company,[me,,2] thats fine but thats sounds like a long term goal[since you have 2 kids]; investing is filled with so many best/brightest.So no,, i would not recommend it@ this time.After kids are gown, maybe??. Adding to the complexity,''Pondering Man'' as they say in Chicago;; ''the smarter you are , the longer it takes''.LOL But mostly true.