Bales, while I'm sure that works just fine for you, for most new traders scalping for ticks is - usually - a losing proposition. Even if they achieved your 1-1-1 rate of success, at retail prices they'd be forking over 20% of profits in commissions.
TE came from a certain site, not to mention, where he stated far more than here. You do not have to worry about my profits.
Picaso Your right about that.. it is hard to see some days , too much profit to my broker. "And all Ive gotten was a Christmas card" tehe. But its a cost of doing business. And that's how I know how to trade best. For me not letting a winner turn into a loser. Is putting a commission in the brokers pocket and me a couple of bucks on a +1 scratch trade is easier than a commission and a loss. But this "make some money everyday" . Keeps me a plus player most of the time. My losses are incredibly small as I trade primarily from reading order flow around prices. But point well taken. Few new traders want to learn how to read order flow. In my opinion a new trader should learn how to read order flow. Its the base cause of market movement and price discovery. And even if you use studies or indicators a conformation by the book is invaluable if everything points down and they are still lifting the offer. I wouldn't get short that minute no matter what a system said. Its also invaluable for finding an exit.
Do you have any books or online articles that you recommend to learn how to read order flow? I use the Bracket Trader DOM on the eminis with IB and cannot make useful sense of the bids and offers. The only useful information I see is that the market seems to usually move toward the larger size which seems to be the opposite of what logic says should happen and what I've seen written.
pspr The accumulative bid or offer volume is only one part, and sometimes deceptive. That scenario can be several things. Supply issues or a strong trend or breakout where resting orders join the bid or offer. Resting order volume is down on aggressive buying or selling . But that momentum can still be strong. Or someone is defending a price you will learn to see real volume and where that is executed. A word of caution anyone learning and trading order flow. Learn one skill at a time. Then add another . And most important to me when I trade . Only expert book traders dare to really only on book and prices and price action. I personally have a habit of looking at dom and rotate my attention to 3,5,15 min chart to stay orientated to markets in a little larger time frame. And not fixate on one piece of information. For me order flow is the definitive take the trade or not. But it is orientated to intra day trend. known "self-fullfilling trade numbers" piv's, fibs ma's. I only trade the bare book only when sideways trading channels form. I learned order floor with just a dom and trade price ladder years ago. But I searched to find useful info . I hope not to simple. But focus on practical use and theory. The heady books have little use unless you trade long time frames where market profile may be more useful http://www.lind-waldock.com/education/ewire/archives/703/feature02.shtml http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f6/order-flow-analytics-7173.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWWuztQCcUE http://www.google.com/#q=understand...link&ct=mode&ved=0CCwQ_AU&fp=a83ad2bfef7d8594