Thank you MarkBrown. Your commitment towards knowing your business and putting in the work is admirable. Currently I am discretionary trader and you know the main question that goes through my head every day is? It is "How do I know what I am doing makes money for the next XXX to XXX,XXX trades. I like discretionary trading but man, I always struggle between the manage the trade with trailing stop for a big winner or just scalp out. Scalp is working man. I think you have a big advantage over discretionary trader in that you can program and back test trading ideas
i have a whole other thread full of comments in my head that would have a completely different viewpoint yet possibly not contradict some of the comments in that thread. i never traded on the floor but i have been on the floor several times and was approved for floor membership on the midam exchange. i also set in a office in the cme and traded a members account and have set in several offices other places trading sizable money. to me a scalp is when i place an buy order for 1000 contracts and the phone rings and i get filled on 500 and then the market dips a few ticks then back up the same number of ticks and the phone rings and my other 500 were filled. this was the old days of the big sp at $500 a point, that dip was my broker and his buddies driving the market down to buy lower and sell to me completing my fill. so scalping to me means someone clipping out of my earnings. scalping was mostly market makers business back when i got in it, so people identifying as scalpers now confuses me personally a bit. in my mind you have to really have some advantage beyond a retail trader to be a scalper. most likely clearing at member rates and consistently making a tick would qualify in my mind. maybe this wasn't answering your question of my view or i missed something will be happy to answer anything.
Thanks Mark, I should have been clearer in my question. I was thinking specifically about these sorts of comments they made: 1/ "Most of the 10% winners is due to luck in a snapshot, on a rolling basis nearly everyone is losing on shot time frames. The market moves to liquidate you, it really is as simple as that." 2/ "Then you have the burnout factor of intraday scalping day in day out for years. I haven't seen anyone last 10 years." 3/ "Once you have a 250k+ account the pressure is completely off, it's a complete mindset shift. An experienced trader will comfortably make 50k a year from a 250k account without over leveraging." 4/ "leveraging up a small account intraday waiting for the price to line up with a line/indicator <insert guru tag> is a negative sum game." In respect of 3/ this is only a 20% TAXABLE return. Putting the $250k into a basket of shares tracking the index probably would earn 7-9% pa and in NZ (where I live) that would be tax free. I am aware of guys trading futures where those $ would be reversed ie they make $200k+ a year on an account size of closer to $50k. And in relation to 4/ your algos use indicators which this poster suggests is a negative sum game (depending on how you define a small account) Any and all comments are appreciated.
1. i would just say that's a broker (failed at that style of trading) talking, they see a lot of defeat and have given up themselves. don't know about the percentage but agree about the luck snapshot, i was a luck snapshot. then i found a mentor who brought me in. 2. hung around the cme floor often and seen a fair share of sad stories of failed floor traders (scalpers) who just could not get the hang of taking a loss and moving on. in the outside world i know of very few day traders or now with 24hr markets very short term traders who can stay with it. it's rare but attainable, i burned out several times. 3. just look at the money managers who are negative or make very little money at all in the business and they have billions. they should own the world based on that statement. what i know for a fact is a trader you guys here will survive if you can take the least account size and grow it from a 1-2 lot up to about 7 or more lots based on a delta that you choose. Quote from Stan Finney "when you have no money you trade scared but swing for the fences, when you have big money all you worry about is losing it so you reside yourself to tapping out singles". <all baseball terms he loved baseball 4. momentum is not limited to cars, trains, falling objects, political races etc. so then why would momentum be vacant from the financial markets? so if we can see or mathematically detect in the case of indicators an object has momentum why would we not have confidence it will continue rather than stop and reverse. even if you price action trade a "simple me" you are in your mind taking note and sampling momentum of the price. In respect of 3/ taxes be dammed and investments in stocks also. to keep up with prices in the real world you need to make serious money and if you can't do it today with the luxuries of trading tools at your fingertips just wow. it's hard work yea but it can be done you have to establish some bench marks, some absolutes that you know for a fact and build from there. any budding trader should ask themselves this, do you have a notebook with any absolutes written down, like the market does this and i can depend that when it does this it will react this way or that? i agree with something i think i saw in that thread is trade with no emotions at all you have to get to that point if you're going to endure and the best way to do that is start small with micro's and get use to losing and winning. only after you have experience and lot's of it can you move on and make money. m
Thanks Mark, very thoughtful comments. I admit his comment about not seeing anyone last for 10 years is the one I focused on. I have thought about that quite a bit in the context of 'dropping' a normal career - can I actually keep up the stamina of day trading, day in and day out for 10 years? ie knowing that every day I have to sit down and place trades to make money. Bit like an author or music composer who has to keep coming up with new work to make money (royalties for existing work aside).
steve2222, I understand your concern. But remember, you do not have to sit at the screen for 8 hours a day. Trade 2 or 4 hours and call it a day. Also, the name of the game is to find something that works, and scale up. When you trading +10 contracts per trade, I bet you sit down at that computer quickly and not move. i sure would, I wouldn't have no problem sitting down.
Hello MarkBrown, I wrote a few strategies in NT8 with range bars. NT8 only offers 1 year of free tick data. The backtester creates range bars with tick data. Do you mind sharing or commenting a reliable serviceS) to buy quality and consistent tick data for back testing purposes? Thank you
Hello MarkBrown, What do you mean by best to build to test build "with percentages"? I am not sure I understand this part. Thanks,
I do NOT recommend you to quit your job unless you've extra income to back you up during those years of learning the craft. I was lucky to have an easy job with good salary that I had so much free time sitting on my hands so I could use to learn and observe the market while at office for almost 6-year. You don't need to install any platform in your office to watch price action. You can use investing.com website to do it. That website allows you to watch market action in multiple time frames. Another one is TradingView, but I've not been using this one for many years so I've no idea it's free atm. Make sure you to take a lot of notes and screenshots which you'll find them useful later on. Once you're able to rack up profits everyday, you won't mind to sit at home everyday to trade for living. There are so many things you can do while baiting for your setups. I like doing gym, playing around with my pets, watching tons of movies that I collected over the years, having a walk or go for drive at anytime I like to grab a coffee and etc... Hell, you can live your life as a digital nomad if that's what you prefer to do. That's what I plan to do next once Covid-19 is over. We love to spend the next few years in countries like Japan, New Zealand/Australia to explore around. Most importantly is that I don't have to deal with corporate cultures anymore.
Well i been scalping since late 80’s early 90’s. I am not burn’t out. And I am just as passionate about the challenge (maybe even more so) than when I first started. Only thing is I sleep later (as I am a diabetic) and often don’t sleep too good at night. BUT once I crawl my carcass out of bed (usually after the open) and get a cup or two of coffee down I am ready to go to scalping the markets. There are days where my brain does not function properly (likely from diabetes) and a confused mental state reigns supreme (i.e. I cannot think straight) and I know it is best to just go gardening or fishing instead of trading. For me scalping successfully is a challenge and I REALLY REALLY like doing it. However, this said I do take periods usually a (few weeks at a time) where I leave the markets alone and do other things. When I come back I am refreshed and ready to go wide open. To be successful scalping you basically almost have to love doing it and learn to let go of missing out on bigger moves or develop strategies for re-entry in those larger moves. When scalping you are taking what the market gives you at the moment, and LOCKING it in.