Wait, is this actually how people scalp?

coplii · Jul 21, 2018

CALLumbus said:
LOL ! I dont think it is possible you know me haha

Yes, you have to try yourself to see what works for you, what market feels good for you. But there is so much to choose from, it is great !

Maybe one additional hint... if you are just starting and you want to go the scalping way, you have to know that without low cost structure (total cost per RT) it is almost mission impossible.
If you are just starting and you dont trade high volume (lets say less than 5000 contracts per month), it will be tough to negotiate low commissions with your broker. And it probably does not make sense to lease an exchange seat yet.

The solution to this might be the Eurex. They have the lowest exchange fees around, and even with a standard retail broker, you can get your all-in RT cost down to something like 1.00 EUR for contracts like FESX or FGBL (which are great for scalping), or something around 1.50 EUR for the FDAX (also good for scalping). With such a cost structure, you are very close to what prop trading firms are offering their traders in London, and you will have one thing less to worry about.
If you pay something like 4 EUR or USD per RT... better forget about scalping. You will not be net profitable.
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Doesn't tradovate.com have commision free trading?

CALLumbus · Jul 21, 2018

coplii said:
Doesn't tradovate.com have commision free trading?
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Yes, but they charge some small extra fees so in the end you pay something pretty similar to what AMP will charge you with their 2K membership (which of course is still very low, especially for the Eurex contracts).

https://www.tradovate.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Tradovate_Futures_Commissions-120917.pdf

CALLumbus · Jul 21, 2018

ElectricSavant said:
Anybody?

Where do I get the running totals of #6
Where do I get the running totals of #8

I need the floating total of all of the values in #6 and #8 listed in separate fields.

ElectricSavant

P.S. I realize that a lot of those are fake...but I want to know which direction the fake is weighted. ES is controlled by programs and little scalpers like me are only allowed to know so much. I feel these totals might be of some value but I need to test. Beat those F&*#ers at their own game. I have done it before and I will do it again. I got banned at FXCM before they went bust...but I would have to be in the hundreds of millions to even get noticed at CME or wherever. Should be the other way around though as currencies are a much larger market. HFT's are getting away with manipulated murder in the first degree IMHO. No I am not in the "Old Boys" club and do not wish to be.
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LOL man, why did you get banned at FXCM ?

Frederick Foresight · Jul 21, 2018

tommcginnis said:
ES:
Put up a 1-minute ATR with a 6-minute SMA, and do not trade if the 6SMA is 0.50 or below.
(For most of today, it ranged between 0.60 and 0.80: *premium*!)
Seek just 1 tick, you've got 50¢ to play with.

If you take 10 trades an hour, for 1 minute each, that's good for $85/hr.
For a 6.5 hour RTH day, that's good coin. Take out 90minutes for lunch (always nuts) and
30 minutes before the close (too scary to hold overnight) and 30 for The Idiot (Half-)Hour at the open, and you've got a 4-hour work day, and $340 tick-scalping 1-lots, US$1700/week, $85k/year with two weeks off per annum. Yo.
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ElectricSavant · Jul 21, 2018

Carry trade interest (there are no Christian Muslims). Arbing... well when the dealer thieves would try to grab pips with their "out of line quotes" I was always there arbing the hell out of it, making it hard for them to cheat (those bastads).

ES

CALLumbus said:
LOL man, why did you get banned at FXCM ?
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ElectricSavant · Jul 21, 2018

This was the single most important piece of info I have received thus far. Can i get me one of those robots?

ES

Frederick Foresight said:

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1a2b3cppp · Jul 21, 2018

patrickrooney said:
Are you referring to columns showing bids and asks in MD Trader? We have that.

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To me it seems the desire was to have the total of all bids and all asks on each side. Then all 10 levels totaled up. Sierrachart does this and shows the ratio. I'd post a picture but it's being all uncomfortable now. It's so you know which side has more.

ELo · Jul 21, 2018

ElectricSavant said:
This was the single most important piece of info I have received thus far. Can i get me one of those robots?

ES
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Crash dummy

CALLumbus · Jul 22, 2018

CALLumbus said:
This depends so much on the current situation right in front of me. Is the day just starting, or am I about to finish it for today ? Is it a very fast volatile market, or is it more of a slow day ? Am I ahead already, or do I already have an ugly loss in the book ?

Depending on these and other factors, I might usually want to get out of a trade once I see that the market is not really moving the way I want. Many times this will be already at -1 tick, or -2 or -3 ticks. Sometimes I might be expecting a breakout or snapback, but it does not come, so I scratch the trade or get out with 1 tick profit if possible.

Other times the market has maybe already fooled me multiple times, and I get pissed and stubborn. Then it can happen that I let it run much more against me, maybe 10 ticks, maybe even 20.

Or on days when I am very nicely ahead, for example I made already 30 ticks profit. And the past few days have all been good. Then I might want to take some more risk, like playing with the banks money. I might accept to sacrifice the 30 ticks that I already made for trying to catch a bigger move, from a breakout for example. Sometimes it works NOT, and you go home with zero for that day. Sometimes it works, and you go home with your biggest day for the month.

What I try to do is to finish every day positive, which of course is not possible. So what I really try to achieve is to finish every week positive, which works most of the time. No perfection needed. It is ok to have a -2000 day if the rest of your week is +500, +3000, +800, +4000.
I liked lescor's thread very much, he was a great example that you dont have to and should not strive for perfection in trading. Many good things to learn in his thread: https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/grinding-it-out-day-after-day.187730/

So like I said, I would not overanalyze this stuff. I like math and numbers, but some things are very hard to quantify. The market is all about psychology and your experience, your psychology interacting with the mass psychology of the market. There is no computer yet that can grasp all these thousands of fine nuances. Just like there is no computer yet that can form and bake the perfect cake. With some things, human brain and hands are still ahead of the machines.
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I have to correct my own post here (the bold sentence, had to add the "NOT"), typing error, sorry, now it makes more sense

SumZero · Jul 23, 2018

CALLumbus said:
If you need something very nice and liquid for later in the day/ night in your timezone, you might try the Nikkei futures. The mini Nikkei future is very similar to the ES, good to trade.
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Which ones do you trade ? stox50 ? dax ? bunds ?