With the advent of algorithmic trading, black boxes, dark pools, hidden orders I feel that the individual retail trader is at a growing disadvantage and it only seems to be getting worse. Transparency is starting to become an issue as regulators seem to be siding with the large financial institutions and are leaving the small retail traders in the dust. Let me pick the brains of my fellow traders, I'm currently at the crossroads of my trading career. I've been trading for over four years now. I started with a firm and then decided to go off on my own. I've been able to survive of my profit but have never been able to turn the corner. I'll have months where I'll make $15K-$20-K and then find myself struggling to stay net positive for the next 6 months. I feel like the odds stacked against the retail daytrader have only been growing since the hay days of the tech booms. I'm starting to consider leaving the markets. I'm wondering is my dream of being a highly successful daytrader merely a pipedream? I feel as a retail daytrader its an up hill battle. Last few months I've found myself fighting tooth and nail just for some scraps in the marketplace. Another possibility is to try my had at forex trading? Has any stock trader made this transition? Your thoughts? Any forex firms that wyou would recommend? Any platforms that you would recommend? I would most likely be scalping in these markets. Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated.. Thanks for everything
sorry, yes index futures. Too many roadblocks and changes with stock trading, plus not enough intraday reward consistently. Index futs can be much more lucrative.
My concern is that I'm strictly a Level II trader, I trade by the book. Access to the index futures book is rather limited, no?
Don't touch Forex. A sucker's game for a retail trader. Much easier money to be made in index futures. ER, ES. Start small. Use tight stops. Get the feel for it. Trade what you see on the charts. Price action, support/resistance. Don't think, feel. No entries after 10:30 Eastern. 1-2 good trades each day, then shut it down and do something else. Good luck.
No, you can see DOM on the ES for instance, five levels deep. But its likely to not help you much since the #'s are constantly changing. Every so often I will spot a real aggressive buy or sell program, he'll pop in, show himself, walk away and then come back in shortly afterwards and move the market. Of course, just like tape reading you have to know when its real and when its not. Takes time to judge these things. Overall though, most will tell you, the size of orders on the DOM won't tell you much about where things are headed.
What is ER? ES is the e-mini S&P right? Any recommendation on a brokerage firm? Ideally one allows you to paper trade and one with access to a solid front-end platform? Thanks for all the help guys
ER2 is the Russell e-mini, ES is the S&P emini I recommend Velocity Futures, I'm pretty sure they are a sponsor here. They have what you are looking for.
wait till Bright , Najarian and Cramer convince the sec to go back to nickel increments. you won't be able to make a nickel.