I did some micro scalping on a DOM while on ToS, and at times it was successful and fun. The problem is you are up against algo bots who are faster, smarter, and have more money than you. They scale in and out of the market while you are micro scalping. I am 64 in December, this is not for me! I am not fast nor rich enough to do this. I'd admit that it is a load of fun. If I could I would write a smart algo bot to do my bidding.
Not sure what the problem is. ES has been pretty "normal" for the week even it being an election. Today was a range day and a stupid one at that. Look at different time frames for your entry on a range day. All the other days this week were golden opportunities where you could have made a lot of easy money on basic setups. As far as this leverage argument I see around here, it seems like an excuse. You lose 10 points, you lose 500 or 50 when trading MES. Seems more of an account size issue if you are worried about such a small loss.
Is this really possible, with that platform and their commissions ? The stuff with the bots is such an excuse, I cannot hear it anymore Whenever a trader has no success in shortterm trading, there is a 80% chance it is the bots again. I say that as long as you dont move serious size, all the automated programs in the market acutally HELP the small retail trader, make it easier, give more opportunities. If you try to move 50 NQs it is a different story though. Ok, so now that you are say that you will be 64 soon, I admit that there are probably better things to do than to sit in front of the computer watching bot wars.
I have scalped ES, NQ, SIL, the DOM is good/fast accurate quotes, the commission is a bit steep, and that is why I quit. But for me, a scalp is 1-2 points.
25 ticks is just day to day noise on GC. If you tapped out, you need to size smaller for even bigger, multi-day moves with the micro contract.
*spits beverage all over the screen* Bondage dogman, I can swear I just saw GC close up 50 points a couple days ago. 200 ticks. 25 ticks is no longer noise? But you are correct. On GC, just stick with the micro. It's been there for forever way before the equity indices. There has been plenty of time to do it that way.
Someone mentioned TN as being smoother. I tried it for 6 months. It seemed to be but I could not wake up for the 5:30 PT opening. FWIW, maybe your time zone works better.