I am interested in becoming a trader, and I think scalping would suit my personality. I would appreciate if someone could give me advice on the subject. I am interested in what markets and platforms are good for scalping. Thank you.
If your gonna scalp you are going to need some of the best software and data feeds to compete with people like me. I suggest you simulate with xtrader or ninjatrader and get your feet wet. Do a bunch of trades and find out how much commissions are going to eat you up and what kind of R:R you are going to need to keep you consistently profitable. Dont cheap out and use IB or other Retail products for scalping. Keep in mind this is for scalping futures, which I think offer the best bang for your buck if you want to scalp. Just dont scalp the ES...
To be honest, scalping futures consistently is probably the hardest thing to do trading wise. It also offers the best lifestyle IMO, so it makes sense that you are always trading against very smart and well seasoned traders. I would not start with any less than 25,000 because you need to stay in the game as long as possible without blowing out. You can not walk into this and think you will be rich overnight scalping. It is going to take a lot of blood, sweat and tears to make it. But if you can trade the index futures profitably, you can trade anything.
If you can do size and get away with then you'll be laughing all the way to the bank. But I will tell you this it is not an easy thing to do. You can scalp 0.5 -0.75 per trade on the ES but you need to be surgical -- you also need to have great defence and an excellent feel for the tape/flow/tricks/traps etc.
Definitely go with X-TRADER. TT (trading technology) feeds is its native. NinjaTrader with TT feed will give you few handred mili seconds delay. There is a new feed called ZenFire, but I am not familiar with it. may be someone can comment on it here. And do not use PATS feed, it will put you in disadvantage. Do not try to cut corners on software and hardware, it will cost you dearly. The best way to cut corners is not to buy all these useless courses. Learn from this site and books. Now that was the easy part. Learning to do it successfully will take a long while.
I was using X_T @ $600 p/m and it failed all my expectations. The actual fills, some, were dead wrong different than what was seen on screen. My experience with X_T turned out to be a very negative one and the broker has given me all sorts of data sheets, as if that explains anything. One needs to be a programmer to understand what that data means. I've been using NT with PATS for quite some time now and not a single problem so far. Basically, as far as I have come to realise through personal experiences, high license fees do not guarantee a lower failure rate. BTW NT is $50 p/m, go figure.
I am using Ninja with with TT but with a direct FIX adapter to Chicago. Cost is about $1500 a month for just the feed, but well worth it. If you are serious about scalping, go with this or zenfire.
Wow, talk about diffence in experience. I had exactly the same one, only my culprit was PATS. It also depend who you trade through and how these feeds are implemented. Regards, redduke