As the markets slow down in the summer time, many traders get caught off guard trying to trade the same techniques that work in a more active market. In particular, for those trading the S&P500 Futures, it can be a very painful period - the narrowest day that I can remember was 3.25 points. Whilst it's not a bad idea to refine your range trading skills on the S&P, it's not for everyone and maintaining focus can be an issue for many. In our latest live webinar video, we reveal a set of scalping techniques. These are going to be of interest to those of you: With a general interest in scalping techniques People looking to stick with indices during the summer months This is trading where we don't need a large range, where we don't need to predict where the market is heading and where we don't even care what price the market is trading. We discuss market state, entry techniques and trade management techniques. This isn't the only approach to scalping but it is very much in line with the types of techniques you'd learn as an intern in a prop firm. To watch the video, click here
Not my technique 100%, but the video's over-riding need for a 'sense of flow' and fluid set-up (and a quick hand on the exits) is very refreshing. I only got 20 minutes in, but by way of constructive criticism, there is a bothersome equivalence between indexes, with an assumption that they will all behave similarly intra-day, intra-hour, intra-minute. Importantly, that is just not the case. While the video directs the user to be directly aware of the movements of other-than-target indexes (and to exploit differences, "Yay!"), knowing what the indexes have done over time (the last week, the last 24 hours, etc), is equally important to knowing what they're doing right then (in that moment). A sharp movement down in one out-sized member of the DOW does not mean that the SPX or RUT or NDX will follow suit, and while a stop-loss will help minimize the hurt, being aware of the larger picture could *prevent* the loss in the first place. Otherwise, in a word, "refreshing!" (Okay, "and a question".....) What are the meters on the bottom? (Okay, a *second* question Is there a ATR measure anywhere about?
Do you get a kickback from brokers? It is extremely difficult for most to be able to learn to day trade. But to learn how to scalp even much more time and brokers love scalpers cause volume of trading goes up multitudes. It "seems" so easy, but it is far from simple, took me forever to get to point I trade now-it is so not easy and you title of the post going to have new traders flooding to try and lose. But you are a vendor...
You are absolutely right - the correlations are up and down - in fact this morning after the US open was a good example of that. Russell also seems to spend more time out of synch that DOW/NASDAQ. My only defense was that I had a guest speaker lined up for this event but he had to fly to Poland unexpectedly, so I did this with no prep - and to be honest, it's only this or an Irish Jig that I can do with zero notice.... So for sure - there's plenty more that could be added and I think your points are absolutely things that need to be taken to heart - so thanks!
Kickbacks? You don't know the half of it.... brokers recently flew me to Russia and boy did I have a good time! But these rumors of a video are somewhat troubling... It's a myth that scalping is particularly difficult. I meet people all the time that have spent 5, 10, 15 years playing "guess what will happen today" but still think it's what needs to be done to trade. Every trade they take is at some form of support/resistance which means they always trade against momentum (after all - you can only get to support if a markets moving down)... I cannot imagine anything more difficult than trying to do something for 5 or 10 years and getting nowhere. Scalping is just one way to trade. It's not a competition. If one thing works, it doesn't negate another. The prop firms I work with push interns towards short term trading. Traders are 100% cost to them until they get to profit. They don't push them towards short term trading because they want to challenge them. It's pretty simple really - if you repeat something 100 times a day, you will improve faster than if you repeat once a day. Most of the retailers I come across shy away from scalping partly because of this myth that it's more difficult (no, it's ALL difficult) - but also because they feel they need to make 50 ticks a trade. The idea that making 50 ticks a trade is easier than 5 has always confused me. But hey, I'm a vendor, so I am probably evil or something...
Meeeeee, tooooooo. But lastly, (Okay, "and a question".....) What are the meters on the bottom?) (Okay, a *second* question Is there a ATR measure anywhere about?)
Must be slow times at trade system vendors these days, why don't they trade their setups to the max and sail big yachts instead of bitching on forums?
Are the prop firms you work with mostly in UK or US ? Could you name a few of them, or is it a secret ?