Any body feel scalping more difficult than before? No matter low price stock like jdsu, sunw....or higher value stock like intc , csco... Is it becuz program trading or something else. And also if the liq rebate is no more available, what the result will be. Can scalping still make money. Will the prop shop gone away ?
scalping has never been easier over the years we have more liquid vehicles to trade improved data integrity and delivery great trading platforms and toolbox programs at little cost comissions came down to nothing tons of information on how to improve your trading a community of traders to connect with if you like or have to if you want to scalp in person you don't have to buy a seat, you can lease one I do not see even one aspect of the trading landscape that got harder oh I forgot ,taxes for traders have come off dramatically
I'm sure there are plenty of people still making a living at it, but scalping stocks was much easier in my opinion before August 2003 because intraday volatility was much higher (mind you, it's been over a year now since I've scalped equities on a regular basis). I guess it depends on your style though, I like trends and volatility. On Nasdaq another thing that made life a lot easier was that market makers would generally use their own ID to execute through soes so it was pretty easy to front run them with an island bid/offer (getting filled was a lot easier too) and you'd have a nice big safety net to get out with if you were wrong. I never traded when fractions were around (unfortunately) but everyone I've talked to who did said it was extremely easy back then. Too bad conditions like that will likely never exist again. But now everything's very anonymous and computerized and reading a Level 2 screen is next to useless. Can't say I'm a big fan of rebates either. However, if volatility picked up I don't see why scalping stocks wouldn't become a more profitable profession than it currently is.