If I did? Fred I worked at the biggest in Chicago at one time..they are no longer standing...not sure what you are getting at. While they had a few traders who were doing well, a majority of them who tried to scalp went absolutely nowhere. And even the ones who were somewhat profitable werent scalping for a tick or two...they were taking more out of the trade, against managements wishes. I dont care what the commisions are......when you scalp the euro for 1- 2 ticks you will lose in the long run..that mkt is too volatile. Like I said...you will have 50 -100 trades a day...tiny winners and losers....ad on the comm and desk fee and your ship is sunk. Why not wait out for good entry points and take more out of them/give more room. That is what successful trading is based on. Let your winners run, and cut your losers appropriately. If this method is so good, why is it that 80-90 percent of "my big prop group in Chicago" lost money? I doubt that all of them were bad traders....it was the way the company wanted traders to attack the market. Tons of trades....more comm/money for the company...less for the trader. I am not saying ALL scalping is a bad idea....but IMHO if you are gonna scalp, scalp something that is thicker and less volatile....maybe shorter term int rate futures....you can do much bigger size and less trades and still have a fighting chance...
I also think Eur/Usd in particular would be too volatile, comparing to other currencies. Based on my observations on this (a well known Oanda's forum poster and very experienced forex trader before trading privately) trader's history: http://users.bigpond.com/morleym/MonthlyReport_Oct2005.htm He's made consistent money by automated trading several pairs, except Eur/Usd (failed probably due to his style/ methods). Perhaps try another currency. Just my 2 cents.
Today: 16 R/T $(100.00) before commissions $(190.24) after commissions Total: 83 R/T $(75.00) before commissions $(543.12) after commissions Plus I have a cold with a major sore throat too. All I can say is, thank God for ZB and ES today.
my remark about costs was based on the idea that ( as im sure you know) costs are a major factor when scalping (or any type of intraday trading) im not a scalper - so maybe im talking out of turn here (but i do know several good scalpers) - scalping is all about order flow and knowing the levels. you rightly say that a good trader should wait patiently for the right moment. if you are trading 10min charts, you may get say 3 opps a day. if scalping, you get 100. if 5 min charts, maybe 10. you get the picture. the patience and discipline is still there no matter what the method. what about the indices? plenty of scalpers there and id say they are just as volatile as 6e (bar es) anyway, lets not over ride lobsters thread on this issue. lets take it outside to the car lot (no knives) to the other guy: i dont think o&a would be a good place to scalp anyway due to the spread (or any bucket shop for that matter). have i misunderstood you, or do you wanna step outside too?
hey..if guys can find a way to make a killing scalping then god bless em....I am more of a swing/position trader. I tried scalping for a tick or 2...not for me....dont see how anyone can make decent money doing it ..unless you are scalping huge size in slower moving mkts...I used to watch guys scalp the russell....one swoop of the book and they lost their whole day....anyways I hope the guy who started this thread has success..seems like a nice guy... No need to drop the gloves freddy..I am too damn old to be brawling...
A new hope for scalpers of euro futures: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?postid=934770#post934770 Q I think I have discovered why there seems to be so much disbelief that a trader can pick up 20 to 30 pips consistently. On Dec 22 the daily trading range was about 87 pips but if you count every 10 pip move the Euro moved about 600+ Pips! I hope now you can see that catching 30 pips is not so unreasonable. One thing traders RARELY do when talking about a strategy is to discuss the time frame it is meant to be traded on. Let's be clear, I am referring to trading the currencies using scalping like techniques however unlike futures or stocks the hold times can be 20 to 30 mins instead of minutes. Catching 20 to 30 pips out of 600 total pip moves now does not seem too unreasonable. I hope this clears up the mystery to those following this. UQ