The meters measure Pace of Tape - part of the Jigsaw daytradr platform. I don't use any ATR measure - not that I couldn't - but I have a "1 screen rule" - if the stuff I need to trade a market can't fit all on 1 screen - it's too much.
Well, if you read the first post and watch the video - it is SPECIFICALLY aimed at slower trading periods. So yes, times are slow these days. Happens this time of year, every year in fact. Hence you taking the time from your busy schedule to post the insightful comment above. Thanks for that. One thing though - I think you might be somewhat confused on who is doing the 'bitching'.
UK, Australia, Singapore, US - most a private firms and I'd prefer not to name names. Good video from the CME on index correlations and the spreads of late: https://institute.cmegroup.com/trad...m_campaign=edu_tradersedge&itm_content=banner
Since spreads and correlations in the (US) indices have been mentioned a few times now, I would like to add a little hint for the guys (and girls) here that are looking for new perspectives in their trading: maybe have a look at the FDAX, FESX and CAC40. If you do it right you can create some really nice, tradeable (scalpable ! ) spread(s) here. And a huge advantage over the CME index futures are the very low EUREX exchange fees. I think it is pretty hard for a retail trader to scalp for example a ES/YM spread just because of the pretty high CME exchange fees (as long as you dont own/ lease a seat). On EUREX you only pay 0.50 EUR per FDAX contract and only 0.30 EUR per FESX contract, so it is much easier to become net profitable with a scalping strategy.
Then I would offer a second criticism {"observation"??} being, that one of the things that clued me to the presentation likely being 'for real' was the comment of having flexibly placed entries being a good drop (long) or pop (short) away from the market, such that if you're entering long, you enter on a relatively unexpected downstroke, or if short, on a similar surprising upstroke. These give you plenty of time to either 1) harvest a tick or three as the market recovers to its prior path up (or down), or 2) that if things are gathering for a (short-term) reversal, you have plenty of time to either minimize the loss, get out flat, or even pick up a tick regardless of the 1-minute-to-5-minute trend. That is a trading policy that might *seem* so obvious, yet I have not seen it enunciated in general trading discussions. ("Weird.") And so, "Kudos!" One coinciding idea here is that the market have sufficient "wash" to it -- which I define as, regardless of an overarching trend, a price action 'true range' that would let me reliably take ticks no matter of direction -- if I'm seeking only a single 0.25 tick, I want 0.75 to 1.00 to insure that when I enter, even if I'm wrong on direction, I can hold for a minute, and leave on the next wave, regardless of the tide. The only thing that gets that wave action -- that "wash" -- is the ATR. BOY was I late in picking that up. BUT I DID! ("Woot!") Brought me solid results for a long time. AND, importantly, told me to stay the hell out of markets without sufficient wash: If you enter, you'll get trapped in the tar of it, and slowly killed. There are many other scalper-appropo' lessons from watching an ATR through the day, but we'll save that for another time....
Maybe Peter should post the 1 tick target Crude Oil drill for those are not too familiar with how efficiency a scalper should be (would be, could be?). I'm a SC chart user & didn't want to abuse the spirit of a free trial so I didn't see the full video to watch how you manage that drill. FWIW, after watching the partial video, I manage to lose $50 after 60+ trades w/ 71% efficiency. That's one tough mf* drill.
Being a scalper for many years, including those years of failure, what I find is that if you can scalp along with bigger time frames, the chances of being profitable are high. Likewise, you will often find market trading sideway and then, going against your trade quickly to trap you with losses, especially with market trending down the whole day. In my opinion, those who say you don't need to care what market doing while scalping, is like driving a car without mirrors which you never know when you will cause accidents. Believe it or not, I find scalping is the most effective way to make consistent income if you are a full-time trader. For example, scalping by using 8-lot trading ES intrument tends to produce a couple of hundred bucks easily per day....
I consider a scalp 1 to 2 points in the ES. Sometimes 1 to 4 depending on the sessions volatility. Successfully net scalp 1 to 2 point a day, with 10 lots, and you got your $500 to $1000.00 day. Once you get it don’t give it back just quit for the day and go fishing..gardening..walking..bowling..or whatever.. Anything more than 2 points when market is grinding or more than 4 points AND two legs I consider as an intraday swing trade.
I agree that one of the main ideas/ advantages of scalping is the consistency that you can achieve. When scalping dozens of trades per day, the statistical law of large numbers will pretty soon show you if what you do makes sense and if it is profitable, or if it is BS. If you only do 1 or 2 trades per day it might take even a year until you find out if what you do is really working or not. What Peter said before is 100% correct, important, and one of the reasons why prop firms do what they do: "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."