Does Rithmic / SC allow you to place server-side orders? I have been reading through the SC support forum and I am having a hard time getting a definitive answer on this.
No one will tell you the truth because the retail trading business has declined, and bottom feeder fish are still desperately needed. $500 margin futures brokers are the typical destination for such bait. The hard truth is that you are insufficiently capitalized. You need way more money to trade ES comfortably. Intuitively, you understand that the probabilistic nature of the markets creates a high degree of uncertainty regarding the outcome of your grub stake, yet you wish to trade anyway (which I can understand, because you can identify trade opportunities). However, due to this intuition, you now have fear over each tick movement of the market, which is understandable because the very short term trading patterns are far more unpredictable, and because you have absolutely no buffer or margin of error relative to the performance bond requirement. And, this is affecting your ability to manage the trade, because, understandably, you wish to protect your stake at all costs, even down to the tick (which, IMO, is just noise). What you're hoping for, basically, is to get lucky on a single trade idea, or maybe a few. Yes, you can get lucky. But, to treat this like a business you need to have capital. That's my suggestion: keep saving money, and keep practicing. The markets will still be here.
Thanks, I have come to this realization about undercapitalization being the problem you described. I am working on it, and trying to get more money, and practice. Thanks for your answer.
I think yes for a straight stop and no for OCO. Here is how to be best setup with SC/Rithmic. Once you have that combo set and working download R/Trader from the DeepDiscount site it's free (note not R/Trade Pro). Use SC for charts and R/Trader to execute and you have server side on even OCO. They do not conflict in any way. Intraday having OCO server side was not important to me in ES but I realized it was very important to me in CL particularly on the short side of CL. But I suffer from the Straight of Hormuz phobia for every second I'm short CL.
That's exactly what I was looking for, thanks! I have been using SC w/ Rithmic for the last 6 months or so. I hated SC at first, but have grown to really love it once getting over the initial learning curve. I just downloaded R/trader and will play around with the for execution. Thanks again.
If you only have 5 grand to your name, trade currencies, risk about 100 dollars per trade. Do not day trade, look for longer term trades, at least overnight, where you can risk $100 to make $200 or $300. And stay away from the ES, you cant afford to trade it!!! In fact, ignore real trading until you have been a successful PAPER trader for a couple of months.
At Rithmic here is the guy to ask: jonathan.walden@rithmic.com He knows his product inside and out, is generous with his time and, all and all, is a good guy. I think with R/trader the straight stop order may even reside at the exchange but he is the guy to ask. The feed is superb and the service and attitude are AAA!