I trade a wide array of contracts both domestic and over seas. I avoid the ES except for for night time stop gunning - meaning I am trying to follow the axe on their night time stop raids. With the ES you are already down $25 the moment you order is filled and your in the most side ways HFT predatory market on the planet - the HFTs are experts at separating scalpers/short term traders from their money. On US markets I use the NQ - the tick is only $5, liquidity is fine , and it is a break out market unlike the ES. The Asia markets are the best break out markets right now and very trader friendly - most trades are done by humans, small ticks, small slippage, and big parabolic moves with very little back filling. What you trade makes a big difference - so does being properly capitalized, not over leveraging, having sound risk management, limiting trades to few a day, and not risking more than 100 basis points max per trade.
In my opinion es is pretty noisy, not a lot of rhyme or reason in the short run. I have had a lot more success with individual stocks. If you are new to trading...in my opinion...STOP focusing on intraday...and focus on the REAL moves multiple week multiple Mont multiple year positions. Day trading is unbelievably hard for most traders let alone new traders. I get the alure... "Make a little bit of money clicking buttons each day" For 80% of profitable traders...that's not how they make money. They make money on big moves...not scalping nonsense. My 2 cents...
If you 're starting out and account is small then it is dangerous cause you gotta be perfect for some time to get to 8 or 9 k. Right now crude is bouncing from upper 30's to 45 ish to 50 ish. Symbol QM lets you in for 1200 and overnight a little more maybe 2k which is much cheaper than es at 5 something...If the dollar gets hit mid week we may get a bounce in crude..check it out
I certainly agree with all that. The OP has said nothing about his previous background/experience, but I think for most people "asking about this kind of scalping in a forum" in the terms he used, NQ is likely to be a far more promising, safer and better instrument than ES (and CL would probably be my own second choice, after NQ).
Swingtrade is the only advice I can give you no matter what instrument you want to touch ... and don't touch anything below the hourly ... tried daytrading in vain for like a decade and then I finally started to sees the light ...
Swingtrade is the only advice I can give you no matter what instrument you want to touch ___________________________________________________________________________ The longer time zone of holding positions significantly improves your performance. The smallest chart I use is a 120 minutes. The original market wizards are very out spoken on how dismal they view the prospects of succeeding in short term trading, such as scalping. Linda Racshke is one of the market wizards, she has put in a 5 year hedge fund performance rated #17 out of over 4500 funds. She says "Day traders can have some good days, while swing traders have good years". That has been my experience as a former day trader. Letting your positions do the work for you by giving an object in motion time (days/weeks/months) to play out is a lot more practical in making any real money than trying to eek out numerous small moves all day which typically results in the HFTs and brokers taking day traders money.
Funny how this thread turned out. OP is asking for Experienced ES Day traders to shed light on ... What actually ? Then what he gets is mostly "No No" by suckers (At least non Daytraders). Guys ! You don't have to get involved in each and every thread ! Keep your mouth shut if what you can tell isn't in line with the OP's problematic. Listen ... Not all profitable musicians are DJs and don't ask for a Rock & Roll tube to a Country or Classical guy ... There is no REAL trading ! There are just traders, preferences, strengths and weaknesses. I am sorry but to cut costs doesn't ultimately improve benefits cause the system ain't the same anymore. It's a different venture ! Could possibly change in nature (From DT to ST ...). Anyway.. This is just my way of getting involved in something I can't help with =P Yeah ! My life's boring too ! It's sunday and the casinos are closed ! Got to kill my time anyhow !
I can relate to this reply as follows. 1) I agree, which is why I started this thread. 2) Why can I not use a submarine? 3) HFT is programme trading and as such is only as good as the brains behind the programme, or as they say in computer terms " rubbish in rubbish out". 4) An anchor is used to stop you moving in water and will be lowered and pulled up several times along the journey. 5) Financial news has a big impact on ES movements. 6) The timeframe I choose to trade will determine my evaluation of whether price is now trending up or down or is stagnant? 7) The levels you speak about can be different for different time frames, but can also be the same for some? 8) If I am patient I can pick a better entry price, but not a better exit price? In relation to your last words, how do you determine if the trend is still intact so that you can stay with it and make more money on a trade. Is this not the key to making a nice bit of money compared to trying to pick off a point here and there between the HFT gyrations? Thank you for the reply, as it makes sense in relation to the thread title. If I can now get some additional details in relation to the best timeframe/s to use, I think I will be ready to give it a go and see how I get on. That flow thing you mentioned in 4) might be useful in explaining the if this then that. Do any ES daytraders have one to demonstrate what it looks like and how it works?
All posts are welcome, but as you rightly said the thread is specifically looking for some experienced ES daytraders to answer some questions. Other markets are of no interest whatsoever.
And if experienced ES daytraders themselves offer you the opinion that another market would be better suited for your purpose, and even explain why, that's still of no interest to you? Please excuse the observation that it's a slightly unusual way to solicit opinions. You're kidding yourself that it's only "one specific group of people" from whom you want to hear: it's actually one specific group of people with one specific set of opinions, too.