4ticks is over to fast to move the sl, trail might work better, 3 pips then reverse vets you out - 1. It's never easy sadly
Thanks guys, I am reading every posts that you guys are posting. I didn't expect this many replies. I really appreciate it! I am still thinking what to do next week over this weekend.
That is quite pessimistic! I still believe that scalping is very doable because at least there are hedgers who do not really care about losing money in the market. Therefore, I believe that there are still dumb money or do not care money out there that I can somehow capitalize on. Feel free to criticize =) thanks for your comment!
Scalping is FINE, no worries at all, fixed SL tricky, obviously need an SL don't get me wrong, but fixed, errrrm got to have wiggle room to adapt. TP wise, don't like fixed TP at all, don't even like setting TP as I always HOPE for a big move and wouldn't want to cut it short I guess, maybe it's a better way, looks like my setup could get you 6-8ticks easy as.
It might sound pessimistic, however ask yourself how many times you felt the need to tweak your strategy, how many times you thought you found the perfect parameters, just to see the market moving in a completely different fashion all of a sudden, forcing you to come back here looking yet again for answers. Truth is, no one can keep beating the mkt in the long term, and as a result not matter which strategy you implement, you will always find yourself back to the drawing board having to make changes for the 100th time. Problem is, by the time you are back to the drawing board it means you went through quite a few losses, otherwise there would be no need to implement new changes. Just think....how many threads were started in this very website throughout the years with people presenting their winning strategy, followed by the first few pages of the thread full of excited people commenting on how cool the strategy is.....but then you see the pages that follow full of new tweaks and "filters" that people come up with to improve the strategy.......just to then seeing the thread dying miserably as soon as people realize that the strategy does not work in the long run ? Countless of threads ended up like that, and not only here, but on all active trading forums. That is when you have to ask yourself, what if there is no way, what if I am just wasting my time looking for something that does not exist? Why is it that most prop trading firms are shutting down? Why is it that the brightest minds on Wall St still have losing years and all they can wish for is returning a few % points over what the market does? Why is it that Steve Cohen himself, who was once the master of trading ES intraday, admitted that today's mkt noise makes it impossible to trade it intraday profitably? And yet here we are, on an internet forum, claiming we will somehow find out a way? I work in finance and deal on a daily basis with trading desks all over the US. I speak to traders from the best firms out there, who have access to the best technology/information and are bright as hell, and yet I still have to find anyone who tells me that active trading can be profitable for the long run. It is a mirage, an illusion pushed by the very same brokers that sponsor this website to generate commissions. That is all, and we all know it. Just my two cents. Best of luck in your pursuit.
Although I don't trade ES, I will admit it's taken me YEARS to find a long lasting method, that doesn't fail 2 days later, it's a right PAIN in the arseeeee I can tell you, so your right, BUT I've been profitable for a while ( not set the world on fire profitable yet ), so I'm still working on it and myself to get to that point. The Noise and taking advantage of it, was my last variable ( brain wave in this thread interestingly ), noise is quick, take your eye off the screen and the entry is long gone, hesitate and gone. Limit orders, towards the extremes of what noise can do, is the solution, once you've worked out what the expected level of movement general noise makes. 0.03% market deviation, is pretty common across all markets, if you buy towards the low of that, you can likely sell towards the high easy, if the market has a direction then only buy the Low's if up. There is your scalp answer, if you can make that work, well that's upto you!
Go to Vegas, get drunk, have a story to tell. Maybe. Rather than concerning yourself with what SL for a 4 tick scalp - against some of the best of the best traders in the world.
I would love to get 6 ~ 8 ticks, but sometimes it goes up like 5 ticks and turn around and hit my SL, which pissed me off. I do not know a way to tell when short term trend has stopped completely or not.