Prove it ! P/L statements only or shut up. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=61514
============= PepperM; You have 2 questions, take the last first. ER2 does have notable slippage -spreads,ES doesnt. And wouldnt try , myself ,to work a plan where commissions ''seem insurmoutable '' Summer time can be for sure ''limited intraday range''; so a goodyear could include some shallow summers. Buy /sell some other real estate contracts , so may not even qualify for your ''just by daytrading the futures markets'' Also generally dont like [car, consumer] debt ; which further helps day trading futures, but not scalping. Wouldnt try to make any kind of living by only scalping derivatives, no matter who does or doesnt.
I really like HSI. Its strongly manipulated at the shorter timeframe by the off floor locals so it makes the old adage of "know your market inside out" very important. But you just have to watch it, build theories of what's happening and then retest them until they match the market's behaviour. I do 6-10 trades on a good day and perhaps 15 trades on a day thats not so good. The 15 trade days reflect the days when the see-saw between patience and courage spends too much time on courage.
Sometimes do something like a scalp on ES, not exactly but its a specific pattern narrow time frame/price target for me, anway. Usually try for a point/contract, but MAINLY not lose anything ; so perhaps 1 or 4-5 times a week,may try it. Got .25 per contract today, with IB; thats &7.70 per contract net off $12.5/tick,ES, thats why dont do it to often,comissions are much less exspense with bigger intraday targets and also enjoy it more/more trends,less noise. Probably less phoney moves with ES,YM,NQ, perhaps many trading companys daytrade stocks more, derivative price shock is a shock indeed. A new trader could get slaughtered on any size or 1 contract ,more so than learning stocks.
Limited Intraday range? Where? 2006 has been great in terms of intraday volatility and range. It hasn't been this volatile since 2003 and before. High slippage/spreads? ES has virtually no slippage and 1 tick spreads. Commissions? IB charge around $4 r/t a maybe as much as $6 r/t. Very low, in my opinion unless you trade a lot. In conclusion you seem to be unaware of the current market reality of intraday trading futures.
that piece of shit es spread is just huge considerin' ranges...i never touched this sob cuz i cannot stand it. sgx on the other hand even tho has 5points range [min tick size] has at least quadruple es ranges and is much more predictable...no bots, less tough competition, a fraction of margin req and much mo-bang for u buck. es sucks big time as a futs contract and cannot figure out why any1 would want to trade it.