For sure, I see this in the ES on the micro time frames. It creates predictable patterns that repeat and semi repeat over and over. There aren't any market maker in ES though. I believe it is because the "bigs" use sell algorithms that try to make it non obvious what they are doing.. So they buy and sell. They don't just go in and sell but they buy and sell. They'll sell to drive price to new low and then they'll buy to drive price to a slight high -- and then they sell again and take out those stops. The clue is the price creeps in one direction though. But for sure.. you can see it is very on the micro time frame to see the traders stops getting burned out. The "gaming" mostly happens on the micro time frames. They get me too.. actually once they get patterns established they don't even have to hide their tracks because other traders will just anticipating they will do it. I find that I can see the activity better on a tick-based chart. >At times, it feels like people see that I know the trend and try to psyche >me out by bluffing the other way forcing me to end the trade early and >taking a small loss or neutral commission loss. It used to be worse, I >used to get completely psyched out by one candlestick reversal and sell >for big losses yet only to see the trade develope minutes later. Does >anyone else get this feeling like the MM are watching you and trying to >psyche you out by betting against you on one candlestick just to get >you out for a loss?
Yes. I once put on a short position and instantly a a reversal came on. It got me really nervous. Then a short time later a subpenny bid showed up forcing support on the price. That got more nervous so I closed the position as soon as I saw small gain. Turns out at the end of the day I was right all along on the direction. I know, it's one time observation but I've become extremely paranoid.
Yeah, I know exactly how you feel. The direction is correct yet it's as though they use leverage to buy or sell a couple shares in the other direction just to get the inexperienced/nervous people out early and then pick up more shares at better prices and then the stock heads in the predicted direction. In a bunch of these situations, I just thought why the hell would you buy or sell into that? None of the signals even support it. Must be the big guys using leverage. Just my guess. I've had too many of these occur so that adds to the reason why I sometimes bail out early with 1 pt gains. Just hate sitting and watching these reversals and praying that they don't break resistant or support levels. I do need to put in stops. Saves me time in trying to get out manually if the reversal is overwhelming and overcomes resistance or support. I've been burned before on not using stops and I try to do limit orders to get out yet it moved so quick that I still couldn't catch up. Just things I learned the hard way or paid to learn by losing. Sad. Funny I read some old post on someone complaining about Scottrade frontrunning and feeling like something evil was going on and the devil was watching them everytime they get in. I know exactly what he meant. In paper trading, it all looks good and according to what you're predicted yet these challenging failed reversals always seem to occur when you jump in.
I think maybe you would do better on a longer time frame. Instead of scalping intraday only trade on a 3 month chart or larger timeframe. Probably you would save a lot on the cost of trades and have a better chance of larger gains and growing your account until you get a better read on the intraday action to start scalping. That's what I am doing.
Truth be told: You have no strategy whatsoever. You determine entries and exits based on gut feel. You trade too large and get freaked out by a two cent movement. You have no risk management (stop loss) which is why every movement is a threat to you. Sadly, you have no clue of what you are doing. The tiny wiggles you play are random, therefore: You are gambling. Solutions: Look at a larger time frame (e.g. the one hour chart). Use daily time frame as reference. Define the current trend (higher high and higher low = uptrend, lower low and lower high = downtrend) and trade in its direction. Enter at reversal points at the beginning stage of a trend. Define significant support and resistance areas based on the 1H time frame. Trade a smaller position until you really have a competitive strategy. Set a stop at a recent peak (when short) or trough (when long). Quit day trading and start swing trading and position trading. One last word of advice: follow my advice!
Scottrade is not for day trading, but they are great for swing or long term trading. IB has better commissions for day trading but I believe they have inactivity fees if you don't trade a certain amount each month.
After much debate, I'm planning to switch to Lightspeed. I read some posts on the ratings and Lightspeed has just about as good of ratings compared to IB. The only thing that people complained about is their tech support. I called them a bunch of times and they always someone answer the phone right away so they seem ok so far. They spoken to both their tech support and trade desk. I used their demo platform today and I was about +80 on it. I understand that it's demo and not real and I usually do better on the demo. At one point, I thought the demo was making everything too easy by giving great fills. For some strange reason, Lightspeed aways gave me much better fills on their demo vs. the price I did the market order on (about 70% of the time). I've been doing market orders mostly on it. Has anyone else had this experience? Demo vs. Real? Or is it just that direct access platforms are just so much more superior than retail brokers in terms of their fill prices?
So today went live -218 Another loser of a day.. what else is new for a rookie? Traded GS: 9:59 Bought $99.14 10:21 Sold $98.67 Knew I was caught in a downward trend.. but waited for a pullback to get out. It showed up minutes after I got out. Go figure. 10:35 Bought $99.01 10:38 Sold $98.82 I pressed the buy button twice on accident. Unfortunately doubled the bet using margin 11:58 Sold Short $98.59 12:14 Bought Cover $98.495 Only positive trade of the day. Gotta happen at some point. Knew it was going down some more but a brief pullback triggered a stop. First time using a stop. Every time I get a gain, it's been difficult and had to wait it out like the computers sense a new buyer or seller and process whatever shares to try to get them to bail. Sigh 12:26 Sold Short $98.65 13:00 Bought Cover $99.22 Unfortunately thought I had a limit order at $98.82 yet a market order was pre-triggered by me leaving it on the stop not limit order. A initiated order triggered using a stop yet did not reach the price point? I left to use the can and when I came back.. yikes!! In looking at the chart, should've realized it was a upward pattern. Just ugly again. Of course as usual, I turn to the paper trade and yep it was too easy. Gained +60 in the last hour. Paper trading is a joke. Anyone that brags about their paper trade skills.. might as well be bragging about knowing how to wipe their behinds. Gonna go back to the paper trades for another two days to get confident again and yep plan on blowing the account later on the real deal. Paper trades are a joke.
You won't make it with an attitude like that! You got to have a burning passion, and you have to absolutely KNOW you will succeed.
I've definitely have a burning passion alright.. been working and researching trading for the last month 40-50 hours per week for the last month. So many other kinks to work out including bonehead stuff like pressing the wrong button. With so little room for error, I need to do more fine tuning. No haven't been paid yet either. I feel like I'm close yet so far. Paper trades make me feel close yet I don't feel that way when I'm doing the real thing. I'm still ploughing ahead however. There are still things I'm learning to adapt to. I switched from doing 1 min charts to 5 min charts today. Today was a transition where I was looking at both. Then I got confused since I was looking at both. Better to stick with one and only one. I decided to go to 5 min charts since 1 min charts move too much although one 1 min charts may seem more profitable due to fast moves. Hard to get in and out during these moves so I went to 5 min charts with more time to think and ponder I suppose. I know some here advocated 1 hr or even swing trading and I do appreciate the advice but I really want to make this work. I don't like to hold positions over night since I want to get decent sleep before getting up early in which I'm not an early bird. Maybe just my stubbornness. LOL