Hi, I am not a scalper with a 1 or 2 ticks target, I trade for anything between 5 and 30 ticks mostly on the FESX Say I am bullish and want to go long using a limit order. Sometimes the market goes up before I could buy and I miss the train and therefore I try to buy again using a limit order but one tick above the previous price, and the price goes up again, I try to buy again and finally get excuted, but 2 ticks above what I originaly wanted. In that case I think, I woud have been better off using a market order, especially when the market takes off. Sometimes, I see a good move, want to take the train and miss 3 or 4 ticks due to the non execution of my limit order especially when the market only trades on the ask, I can't get filled on the bid and it happens that instead of having a 10 ticks winner, I only get 7 ticks winner due to slippage in the execution. Other times, the limit order is executed at the price I want and therefore I am better of with the limit order than the market order, because if I had used a market order, I would have entered 1 tick above the limit order. I feel I am bad at reading the depth of market but I am good at reading the graphs and ride multiple ticks winner. Shall I use limit or market orders? You could tell it depends if the market is fast and trades only one way but it's not easy to find out sometimes. Do you always use market orders or only market orders, do you use a combination? Shall I stick to limit orders or stick to market orders?
I used to do the exact same thing. I was so worried about not getting the exact price I wanted that I even used AON orders. Little did I know I was in the back of the line on every single trade I made. Except in thinly traded environments, using market orders to buy (or sell if you're going short) then using limit orders for your exits is fine.