I am very surprised, nay, flabbergasted, two posters have stated the spread on ES as being $25, two ticks, and nobody has called that out. It is one tick, $12.50.
As @stocktrader said in his 1) that he thinks the ES is the best daytrading vehicle in the market, I replied that I agreed with him. The last thing I want is to start looking at things that I have no interest in. People are free to post what they want here, but I am only interested in speaking about daytrading the ES. I would also like to hear more from traders who do nothing but daytrade the ES, regardless of their results.
I also agree with him, overall, but that doesn't necessarily make it the best daytrading vehicle for the specific purpose you described. The truth is that there isn't really one, objective "best daytrading vehicle" for all daytrading purposes. It depends what you're planning to do. The devil is in the detail, as the saying goes, and there are actually some purposes for which other instruments may be more appropriate. You say that, but actually you're only interested in speaking with people who don't question your own assumptions, about daytrading the ES. That's ok, too - I'm not complaining about it. It's up to you who you want to limit the discussion to, but at the moment I suspect you're kidding yourself a little about that and depriving yourself of what could possibly turn out to be some pretty valuable information for you. I wish you nothing but good luck, either way.
You are of course correct in saying you are down $12.50 with a spread of 1 tick, providing price stays stationary once filled. From my observations this rarely happens during US stock market hours.
@wtfauoa your stubbornness in insisting on only considering one instrument does not make sense as @Xela quite rightly says. I day trade the dax and would never even touch a US index. It's what you're used to I suppose but starting out with the wrong instrument could well set you back a long time until you look around for something that suits you better.
I am not stubborn when it comes to trading, although it was not always that way. Why would I want to trade anything else if the ES offers good daytrading opportunities, which appears to be the case from it's chart history. My mind is made up and all I need now is some additional questions to be answered by people who are daytrading the ES every day.
The plan is to become an expert at daytrading the ES only. In order to achieve that I must stick to daytrading the ES only. Daytrading means not holding overnight, but can mean holding for several hours or most of the day. I am hoping to get feedback from very short term ES daytraders and those who hold positions for several hours, as I plan to do both at the same time. I hope this makes it a bit more clear in relation to what I am trying to achieve with this thread?
I apologize as I missed this small post. Do you do very short term daytrades, hold for several hours, or both? What times do you start and finish trading at? Do you use volume on your chart? Do you use any technical indicators on your chart? Do you use bar chart, candle chart or another type? Do you use a price ladder? Do you watch market internals? Do you use mechanical or mental stops? What do you consider the best timeframe/s to trade, and why? What is your expected return per day in % of trading capital not including leverage? What is your max risk per day in % of trading capital not including leverage? What is your min and max drawdown per day/week/month in % of trading capital not including leverage? Are you profitable each and every day/week/month?
I have day traded Big S&P500/ES for 31 years, took 7 years to get profitable and another 7 to learn scalping. There are other markets less as difficult than ES cause ES is used often as a hedge for the cash index. And you are wrong, when you on wrong side of a move, it is damn hard to get out, as it should be of any market. So many think ES is cheap trading, but CME gets much more money now than when there was Big S&P at $500 a point. I now have to trade ten times more contracts than before, but there is not ten times more volume at all. I now spend my time designing longer term methods and learning more on options. 1-3. I only day trade(automation) first hour of most markets, biggest volume, sizeable moves, I am in profitable trades right now at 1 minutes 45 seconds ave time, I use one minute bars for heavier volume instruments. I use other timeframes for other instruments that back test well that are traded 23 hours for other than scalping methods. Generally going against the crowd. I have one system that only used 60 minute timeframe and can stay in overnight, follows 23 hours and over 40 markets. Always use volume, but my definitions are often opposite of how stocks are traded. 4- . I don't use any indicators under the chart, none of those indicators for day trading but do use for weekly/daily. Scalping I use Bollinger Bands and Slow moving averages, speed gives too many false signals for me. Bar charts, Dome(spend couple years watching it as can aid sometimes), ES use to be mental stops, but retail should use hard stops. 10/11. I don't expect anything and often think this is silly and puts undue stress on the trader. Risk less than 1% 12. Stop trading ES at minus 9 points per lot in one day on original entries, less than 1% to 1.5%. 13. no/no/yes As a Scalper who averages down on every signal, like Sept 9 and 12 were losing days for me, those days were hard trending days, my systems don't do well on these types of days. Lucky for me on Sept 12, price bars set off triggers within the system that turns trading off for twenty minutes so I lost minimal on Sept 12, and I believe it set off three triggers so whatever trading done, wasn't much. After having two losing days in a row, I increase size 50%. If I was just starting out, learn options on stocks. People don't realize how much you have to remember in seconds. Say you are a corner of busy intersection, and you witness head on accident between two cars, what do you do? If you stand there, you lost; if you noticed one was newer Volvo and other 20 year old Ford-you dash to driver side of Ford calling 911, then start talking to driver and check if others in car, if others crying from pain-you know they are alive. You have to make dozen split second decisions if you going to help. Trading is very similar, which signals do you disregard and which do you take.