Lippy, do you scalp one penny at at time or 10 pennies or .... ? Thanks. Cause each round trade at IB cost 1 dollar for a 100 share lot. I figure you don't scalp 1 pennies.
Along various lines of Mav, spike & steve.....but let's combine them and take a bigger picture view. Suppose you use the analogy of sports stars to good traders: They all have their own styles, in different sports, each of them are unique. All of them train, in various ways--to be the very best at what they do, given their own natural talent and personal style. A soccer player isn't necessarily a good basketball player, or vice/versa. The same goes for a momentum trader vs. an arbitrageur. All of them have completely different skill sets, yet they are all professionals. There are different angles, on every game, in every sport--and individual players that specialize. Some have natural skill, some must develope the skill....but all of them must hone that skill to advance in their profession. There are always pro players, pro bench players, semi-pro's, high school stars, team cuts....and armchair quarterbacks. Why do we all repeat the same mantra? Because it's true. You DO get out of it what you put in. It's pretty much that way in everything. At the same time, not everyone is good at every sport....so find your path & give it your all, whatever it may be, & success will ensue. PS: I learned by doing, often the wrong way, but then learned from that too. -Cheers, NBBO
What Spike says here is correct. Ironically, IMO, most of what Maverick said is correct also. Good posts guys.
i go for both one penny and 10 depending on the stock. obviously i would love to get 10 cents on each trade but i dont hold positions for more than a few minutes. If its a thicker big cap slow moving low priced stock i will probably be looking for 2-3 cents on a larger position (fnsr, orcl), but will often be fine with 1 cent. If its a faster thinner more expensive stock i will usually be looking for 7-10 cents (xmsr, ebay) and in the later senario 1 cent is as enjoyable as no profit.
I'm beginning to see one of the problems here. If you guys are scalping for pennies, daytrading is going to be very difficult for you. I traded for dollars. And I don't think I ever would have taken home a check if I traded for less then dollars. You guys have no margin for error. I would make 2 to 3 pts on good trades and lose 20 to 30 cents on bad ones. I would rather spend time in a Turkish prison then stare at a screen all day and scalp pennies. Seriously, you guys can't honestly enjoy that can you?
I do enjoy it and i know many others who do as well. Everyone to their own style and you can make money this way, just look at the numbers posted by millenium man (though he doesn't post that often) or even better look at what billybobnasdaq post on occasion and though he rarely posts his p/l he does cosistently clean up. when i was at swifttrade and actually had the bp ive taken positions as big as 30k in pep and that is nothing compared to the 100k+ positions some of these guys are taking. If thats not exciting than you got bigger kahona's than i think ill ever have
Again, back to "every player specializes" analogy. We all do things differently, hopefully we all do it well. I've scalped for .03-.05...and traded for $3-5.00. .03-.05 is more stable and intense, and not as volitile as $3-5.00 gains. I'm not even sure what my specialty is anymore, I do all of it. Yet, my equity curve was the prettiest as a pure scalper--I think my max DD then was .35% or something very low. This month, my $3-5.00 trades cut me for a 1.9% DD, my largest ever. Money management +consistency---what it's all about.
I understand there are a many ways to sheer sheep, I'm asking you if you are happy. I always felt scalping for pennies is akin to prostitution. A trader whore if you will. LOL. I mean if you are honestly happy trading this way and you make money, hats off to you. There is no wrong way to trade if you are profitable. I am just questioning the sanity of it.