I actually know somebody who has been day trading CSCO common stock for over a decade and making a good living off of it too. While I don't personally trade it, I presume one could have made a killing shorting it in the morning and covering it in the afternoon for the past year or so.
A 7 cent range with huge liquidity and volume is a scalper's dream. Scalpers are liquidity providers and straddle the bid/offer all day long. If C trades 250,000,000 shares in a day, that is a lot of pennies to be made without the stock even needing to go up or down for a trader to profit handsomely. Remember, one penny on just 50,000 shares represents a gross profit of $500 before commissions, regulatory fees, etc. I've been trading this way for a decade.
That is very true. A $1 move doesn't mean much if the stock making the move is $235. That represents only a 0.0042553191489362% move in the stock which isn't that far away from a 1 cent move in C resulting in a 0.0022222222222222% move.
Yeah, sorry. I forgot. This board is full of day traders with a $4000 account playing market makers to buy bid and sell ask to capture a 1 cent move all day long. High volume is enough. Volatillity has no meaning. They know exactly where the stock's high would be and where the low would be for the day. They pay zero commission. And slippage doesn't exist.
Right. They pay zero commission to buy on bid and sell on ask. The market would never go against them when they hold 100,000 shares of C. I thought we were talking about an average retail, self-made day trader trading his own account but perhaps something else was being discussed. My bad.
If you really wanna make dough doing day trading ... ONLY PLAY ... what is IN PLAY. News driven High (unusual) volume stocks. Set your scanner to filter - Over 1M avg volume - Trading >3 times avg volume - Price range (10 - 150) - Equal or larger than a Mid Cap stocks (size of the company) Look for a quick snap of the news. Size up based on you risk parameter and trade the Direction in with the stock is drifting and not what the news suggests. Be quick to flip sides if initial trade goes south. Do not enter your full size in one shot. size in. These need you to be in top shape - quick to act but gotta let the winner run as always. IF You or anyone do not believe in this method. run the scan for any day, and check out the charts and see for your self... pretty darn directional with little of no reactions. Coz its hard to manipulate these ITEMS. Gud luck.
Not to get involved, but: comms are very, very cheap, and much lower than the rebates. In C if you "miss" a level, your slippage is a half a penny. And there are tricks to get filled more easily, ahead of line 0 darkpools, etc. As sarcastic as you are, it actually can be done.
The funny thing is I think you're right on that first part: a lot of those traders who flip C are part of prop shops or prop groups where their deposit could be $4,000 or even less in some cases since they are not bound by the PDT rule. With this style of trading, you actually don't want a lot of volatility. The reasoning behind this is because you are constantly going for a penny profit by always being on both sides of the market. So in a way you're capping your upside potential to only one cent per share; however, if the stock moves against you (i.e. volatility), you have the potential to lose way more than a penny. This is where all the tools of the trade and proper risk management come into play. Any trader on here who pays zero in commissions is obviously full of shit. With that said though, it's very possible to be "in the green" on the fees column if you're adding enough liquidity on the ECNs to overcome your commissions, regulatory fees and taker fees (or maker fees on the inverse ECNs).