Short-term intraday traders: limit or market entries?

I am curious to know how many short-term intraday traders use limit entry orders vs. market entry orders.

When I first started trading, I used market orders. Over time, it became evident that my market orders generally incurred slippage which paid for other people's elaborate meals. I then switched to limit orders and have been able to contain my costs much more predictably. However, as I slowly improved my trading method over time and it became more reliable, I found myself cursing more and more at missed opportunities because the market went through my limit price and didn't look back.

I know that a simple cost/benefit review will determine which way is best for me on balance, and I don't need help in this regard. I am just curious to know what the rest of you folks are doing in the aggregate.

For those of you who will respond, please be so kind as to indicate your time horizon for perspective. For example, I trade ES and NQ using 1-minute charts and have holding periods ranging from less than one minute (usually losers) to several minutes.

Regards,

Thunderdog

 

Gee, thanks for the overwhelming response.

 

Limit buys
Market sells

Vice Versa

 

I use Stop-Limit Orders to enter into positions.
I also use Stop-Limit Orders as a protective trailing Stop-Loss.
I use Limit Orders to take profit.


.........sometimes when I'm scalping I will use Limits both to enter and exit.

I NEVER EVER EVER EVER USE MKT ORDERS UNLESS MY LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!:eek:

T-REX

 

Three aliases? Wow!

 

Here is my add-on over the overwhelming response.

The general rule is to use limit order if less than 3 minute scale used. The limit order is to buy at bid and sell at ask. If you think the market is ready to run, use limit to buy/sell at last.

If scale more than 3 minute, then market order is fine, cos you are after big and you just want to be in the market.

If you use IB, there are front-end entry tool like BracketTrader and NinjaTrader which have a chase feature preventing you miss a boat. Most platform has DOM (Book Trae for IB) which allows you easily change limit order when you see market is runing from you.

It seems you are scalping, limit oder should be prefered order type.

 

Same.
Allways.

NEVER use market.

 

Thunderdog, it really doesn't matter what anybody else does. Test both and see which tactic suits your trading style best. If doing something somebody else does works for you, it will only be coincidental.

 

i have lost a couple big trades because i went limit but market will 75% of the time give me a 25 cent slippage but it still works out better to go limit in my case.

 

Thanks, and I agree. In fact, that is what I said in the second to last paragraph of my first post in this thread. I just found myself curious to know what the rest of you folks were doing.