Allow me to stick my neck out here and make an assumption or two. Too many people approach trading the wrong way. They think that it is about making big profits, and out smarting the other guy. It is anything but. If I can make 2 or 3 e-minie points a day. I will have more money than I would know what to do with. The 5 or 10 point moves sure are nice, but I am not smart enough to know when they are coming. I have been able to identify 1/2 or 3/4 point moves, so that's what I go for. That's what scalping is all about. I trade for an hour or so in the morning, and sometimes for the last hour. Most days I take a 2 or 3 hour nap in between. I trade price action - established trends. I use no indicators, visit no chat rooms, subscribe to no services. I do not spend countless hours in research, nor countless more trying to figure out what the market will do tomorrow. I am in this to make money - period. It is not an ego trip where I am smarter than the other guy in figuring out what the market will do. I sit back and let the market tell me what it is going to do - at least in the next minute or so. Then I jump in, grab a few ticks, and wait for the next chance. It's not very sexy, but it works. Folks do not gather around be at cocktail parties to seek my council. I have no stories of how I got in on the ground floor and made a killing. All I have are a few points of profit a day - day in and day out. That's what it is all about. It ain't brain surgery - it's trading. Don't make it any more complicated than it has to be.
Great post. I couldn't have said it better. I trade estx50 future at the opening this way. I agree. It works.
Tampa Nice to hear, that there are guys out there who keep it simple and go for only a tiny piece of the action. If you can do this with increasing size, then you will make an excellent living. It might not be so interesting to talk about, but who cares if you make more money than everybody else on the party AND get your nap! x-or Do you only trade the opening this way? For how many points do you shoot? Do you use a hard stop?
The best thing about trading the markets -- especially index futures, is the huge reward / wipe-out potential it offers. It is also an equal opportunity employeer and doesn't discriminate against anyone. It fires those employees who simply do not perform and it never offers a decent severence package. However, top performers take home 7+ digits a year. aphie
OK, well, there you have it. There are many successful scalpers, including the guys who posted on this thread. Now is it very likely that they will be cool with sharing their methods with you? Not very likely. They're afraid if people use same method, their slippage will increase which is true + all kinds of other reasons. So my conclusion is you gotta build your own method. So some of the people who are doing well scalping, I have some questions for you. How hard is it to develop a workable method? Which direction should one think in? What place if any, does discretion have in your method? And basically anything else that you wont feel paranoid about sharing
I, for one, have already told you what my method is - weren't you listening :>). It would not serve you were I to go into detail, because you need to "discover" it on your own. And there I can help. Put up a one minute chart, and stare at it until you begin to see where it almost always will give you a point. Look at the last hour yesterday (Friday) - there were two such set-ups. I am not trying to jerk you around, but if I point them out, you will have learned nothing. Keep staring at the chart. There are two points where prices dropped sharply for a full point or more. You need to be able to spot these things as they set up, and act without hesitation. Still need more help? I have already said that I look for established trends - so I must be using "continuation" patterns. What must the S&P do to qualify as continuing? Now do you see them? If not, keep looking. When they finally jump out at you, you will have "discovered" a very valuable tool - and all on your own!
Maybe for someone who trades hedge fund size, but there is no way that anyone trading small numbers is going to "lose their edge" by giving away the secrets to scalping the tiny ranges...Their edge is simply partailing out, scaling into and scaling out, etc, etc...
I totally agree -- even if some of us are trading 250 contracts a pop, we simply don't have the power to move the market to any significant degree. Just look at the volume on the e-minis on a typical high-volume day (200+ contracts spitting around like it was nobody's business). Also, the net effect of any system being used by many wouldn't really destroy the system because everyone would still implement it differently and, as always, over 50% of the traders would "monkey" with it to suit their own unique trading styles. Netting +2 to +5 ES points average per day is a walk in the park with even the most basic of systems -- as long as you stick to the gameplan. I've netted 19 points last week on simulated trading (which takes into account slippage). I used market orders every time and very rarely used a limit order, except for occasional trailing stops to ride profits. Now one week doesn't mean anything and it isn't with real money, but I have swing traded QQQ for a long time and have always made money on it. It was by a suggestion from a friend that I look into the e-mini market and this looks fantastic to me. When I trade with real money, I'll start my journal, provide graphs and be more than willing to share my strategy with everyone -- provided I get constructive criticism and people keep flames to a minimum. Index trading is far easier for me than trading individual stocks, but some people will argue opposite. aphie
Yes, I only trade the opening. I tried the afternoon too but was less succesfull doing it (I think thatâs because I didnât trade it enough). I havenât any target in points. I exit upon holding time. I try to be in the trade 2â00 at least but can stay longer on my discretion if the move sounds good. I rarely go beyond 4â00. I take what the market gives me after these 2/3 minutes if Iâm not stopped yet. The outcome of my trade goes from â5 pts (wich is the worst case with 1 pt slippage on 4 pts stop) to 10 pts (sometimes 15 or 20 on rare good occasions). Usually, Iâve got around 3 or 4. My % is around 50. I use hard stops because I experienced too much slippage by exiting manually. Hope it helps.