Tried scalping nq this week, it seems to be a better choice for scalping than es: limit orders can easily get filled, volatility is good, etc. I planned to trade it occasionally, but I was hooked and haven't traded es for 3 days. It might be too thin for some traders though. Any nq scalpers? Does nq follow anything?
ES NQ YM are kinda well correlated. Does NQ follow something else ? It's an indice ... Components ? Correlation ain't Causation. I Don't really trade NQ. ES mainly, NQ rarely, From time to time. When I feel like .. NQ overreacts.
I am not really sure but I guess that Risk is about the same. btw NQ and ES -> (Tick value & Volatility) weighted. What I like with ES is its liquidity & it's cleaner. It's harder to follow thin markets on a DOM. But be careful while scalping the NQ ! There are more micro varations, But also as Big as ES ones.
NQ typically becomes the leader around earnings season when the behemoths report and gun higher (AMZN, GOOGL, AAPL, etc)...You probably noticed that NQ was lagging everything else until the 6/27 lows... Typically, IWM strength will give clues about SPY strength...DOW has been lagging everything else in recent weeks...These relationships change all the time though.
I use exact same system to trade each ES, NQ, YM, EW, VI much less volume than ES, trade same time, automation can't beat. None of the others, for ME, can't beat the ES as far as successful signals, but overall they profitable if you follow your rules. Thin markets means when there is a "micro variations" as K-Pia puts it, can whip thru stops, cause lack of volume, you can make more than ES, so if you have a runner, you can try for 50% more. VI is excellent for day trading early as volume is thin as well, it is more of a chart pattern market, but very fun.
There are markets that give you a bigger bang for the buck than the ES but restrict on size of position due to trade volume. Agree on boring but am not trading for thrills.
I like NQ. It "goes further", as one or two people have commented above, but as against that volumes are much lower and of course it's only $5 per tick, rather than $10 like ES.
Sounds like you're excited about winning pennies on a large bet. You should ask yourself if you're OK with losing your accumulated pennies on the one or two bad days which will come soon.