That's the answer...difficulty of one versus the other (stocks versus futures) is completely strategy dependent. I've traded both at the same time and finally went 100% futures many years ago because it just suited my personality and my lifestlye. Thus, with all the different types of future trading instruments and different stocks... Trying to determine why one is more difficulty than the other is ridiculous. We may as well be having an in-depth conversation about why situps is more difficult than pushups. NihabaAshi
I agree with your comment regarding the different products to trade. I also believe that comparing scalping to swing trading or position trading is just as silly. BTW, scalping doesn't necessarily mean trading for ticks.
Please post a screen shot of the execution report of the brokerage you are using, with the account numbers blacked out of course.
In response to the original question. A couple of reasons, IMO. First off, the floor traders can pay as little as 65 cents round turn, which makes it pretty tough to compete. Secondly, since the futures are a leading indicator, with the equities following, it is generally easier to trade the lagging instrument. In addition, futures are a "zero sum game" - and equities have earnings, dividends, etc. to provide additional profit potential. Don
Excellent as always... The slowing down is definitely what is required. Admittedly, my stated "real" results were just by focusing on the T&S alone as a skill building exercise. The 4.1x breakdown is also a bit below the breakdown's usual mean of what has been extrapolated through the course of the day. Typically the positive aggreagate is > 5.1x and outliers for the past 2 months were > 7.2x. It can be exhausting to really stay on top of what continues to happen "now". At the other end of the spectrum, I was concurrently executing on a second independent account, a more relaxed Price paradigm in which the activity was 8 trades netting 5.75 points per contract on ES for yesterday as a reference for the spectrum I am currrently processing. So there is a middle ground in the 20-40 action regions and 1 tick losses can be mitigated by risk aversion. Is your risk aversion a result of being "tuned in" and appropriately "focused" only when required or a safety mechanism skill? The DOM comment is certainly appreciated. Per chance, are there any related logs that could useful for sorting and processing? Kindest Regards, MAK For the log people, it is irrelevant. I have comrades who stare over my shoulder throughout the entire day and they still aren't convinced. I handed out spreadsheets (not in ET yet) that run the same activity automatically and it's deamed "luck" (ie. an ever increasing window of observation is required for convincing validation). What is required for anyone, including myself, is to focus on what is required (knowledge, skills, experience) when the time has arrived to get job at hand done. I can self-teach but currently lack skills to teach others. Assuming I posted a log, there will be the usuals who want to see audits, then a week of live calls, 1 line descriptions all of which have nothing to do with this thread. You see the ET MVP's (which I am not since I am still skill building) subjected to this better spent time. If at some point I acquire the skill to lay out a process, I will, even then it is likely to be "unbelievable".