'sup, Turok.. thanks for the feedback.
A: You say you scalp "illiquid" stocks. From this I will assume that you won't be moving much size (not a critisism, I trade small size as well). Are you able to scalp even a 500 share lot in these "illiquid" stocks?
i usually open my trades with 200 share lots. if i'm in, and the stock moves against me say 50 cents or even a dollar below my original entry point, i don't sweat it. i just play the penny game with the ECN computers to try to get the stock back up to my entry price. alotta times i'm able to do it without buying a single share. if i do happen to get the fill, and end up doubling, or tripling down (to a max of around 500 or 600 shares), 50 or 60 cents below my entry, my cost basis'll be low enough for me to turn the trade around. that's pretty much how i'm able to stay 90% green.
i used to trade 1,000 and 2,000 share lots, but the stops were killing me. also, when those pennies would tick away, the anxiety would start building up in my gut around the $70-$80 point.. then when i'd kick in commissions, i was out $100 dollars. after having a few bad trades in a row, and being down $350, $400 bucks, i'd start thinking of what i coulda, and shoulda done with that money instead of just blowing it. i was profitable, but the guilt from the bad days just worked me over. that's why i started trading small.
B: You are looking for ~5 cents per trade.
when i enter a stock with a wide spread of say 10 cents or so, i'll immediately hop on island, and hide my offer a penny below the inside offer. if the inside offerer cancels his offer, i'll cancel mine, and penny it up to a penny less than the next inside offer. if he comes down a penny, i'll cancel and come down a penny. he usually doesn't 'cuz he doesn't know i'm there. as long as i'm hit with the first market buy, i'm happy. if the inside offers start collapsing, or if the stock runs up without hitting me, i'll just cancel my offer and double-click the bid.. provided it's at least 5 cents.
C: You have ~18 winners per day
Around that.. but alway around 90%.
D: Your losses per losing trade are ~12.5 cents (5 x 2.5 - from your statement that 2 losers wipe out 5 winners)
naa, my losers are bigger than that. i shoulda said my winners are a minimum of 5 cents. i also have 20 cent runs. my losers come at the end of the day when i don't wanna hold something overnight.
E: we are now down to 65 cents (13x5 ) daily profit times your share size.
If you can scalp 500 shares in this illiquid stocks that puts you at $325 per day. Now, I'm in no way talking that money down as that is more than probably 95% of ET members make, but as a guy who has scratched like that for those kinds of dollars before I can tell you that there are a lot easier ways to make $350 a day than staring down a LVL II.
I'm glad it's working for you. While you have that nice steady income from your porfolio, you might want to think about working on some additional methods that will scale and require much less maintenance.
Nice work on those scalps btw. Beginners thing it will be easy -- it's not and most will lose, lose, lose at that game.
JB
yea, i feel what you're saying on that. it is alotta work, and i even made it sound alot easier than it really is. but i'm up about $400 to $600 a day, net commissions. the market used to savagely rape me when i'd try to daytrade any other way.
i had a prospective prop trader sitting with me in the office yesterday during my CECO and OSTK trades from yesterday (below). he thought i was crazy the way i tried to move the stocks back up to my purchase price artificially by having the computerized ECN system automatically matching my bogus, micro-second inside bids, and didn't feel it was worth the effort either.. but i ended up salvaging and netting money on both trades after AWFUL original entries. (I was long several other stocks at the time, so that's why i only did 100 share lots.)
i also short and cover fairly large lots of naked QQQ calls and puts during daily breakouts and dips, and buy and hold liquid, momentum stocks.. but scalping for me has always been my most consistent way of netting daily profits.
A: You say you scalp "illiquid" stocks. From this I will assume that you won't be moving much size (not a critisism, I trade small size as well). Are you able to scalp even a 500 share lot in these "illiquid" stocks?
i usually open my trades with 200 share lots. if i'm in, and the stock moves against me say 50 cents or even a dollar below my original entry point, i don't sweat it. i just play the penny game with the ECN computers to try to get the stock back up to my entry price. alotta times i'm able to do it without buying a single share. if i do happen to get the fill, and end up doubling, or tripling down (to a max of around 500 or 600 shares), 50 or 60 cents below my entry, my cost basis'll be low enough for me to turn the trade around. that's pretty much how i'm able to stay 90% green.
i used to trade 1,000 and 2,000 share lots, but the stops were killing me. also, when those pennies would tick away, the anxiety would start building up in my gut around the $70-$80 point.. then when i'd kick in commissions, i was out $100 dollars. after having a few bad trades in a row, and being down $350, $400 bucks, i'd start thinking of what i coulda, and shoulda done with that money instead of just blowing it. i was profitable, but the guilt from the bad days just worked me over. that's why i started trading small.
B: You are looking for ~5 cents per trade.
when i enter a stock with a wide spread of say 10 cents or so, i'll immediately hop on island, and hide my offer a penny below the inside offer. if the inside offerer cancels his offer, i'll cancel mine, and penny it up to a penny less than the next inside offer. if he comes down a penny, i'll cancel and come down a penny. he usually doesn't 'cuz he doesn't know i'm there. as long as i'm hit with the first market buy, i'm happy. if the inside offers start collapsing, or if the stock runs up without hitting me, i'll just cancel my offer and double-click the bid.. provided it's at least 5 cents.
C: You have ~18 winners per day
Around that.. but alway around 90%.
D: Your losses per losing trade are ~12.5 cents (5 x 2.5 - from your statement that 2 losers wipe out 5 winners)
naa, my losers are bigger than that. i shoulda said my winners are a minimum of 5 cents. i also have 20 cent runs. my losers come at the end of the day when i don't wanna hold something overnight.
E: we are now down to 65 cents (13x5 ) daily profit times your share size.
If you can scalp 500 shares in this illiquid stocks that puts you at $325 per day. Now, I'm in no way talking that money down as that is more than probably 95% of ET members make, but as a guy who has scratched like that for those kinds of dollars before I can tell you that there are a lot easier ways to make $350 a day than staring down a LVL II.
I'm glad it's working for you. While you have that nice steady income from your porfolio, you might want to think about working on some additional methods that will scale and require much less maintenance.
Nice work on those scalps btw. Beginners thing it will be easy -- it's not and most will lose, lose, lose at that game.
JB
yea, i feel what you're saying on that. it is alotta work, and i even made it sound alot easier than it really is. but i'm up about $400 to $600 a day, net commissions. the market used to savagely rape me when i'd try to daytrade any other way.
i had a prospective prop trader sitting with me in the office yesterday during my CECO and OSTK trades from yesterday (below). he thought i was crazy the way i tried to move the stocks back up to my purchase price artificially by having the computerized ECN system automatically matching my bogus, micro-second inside bids, and didn't feel it was worth the effort either.. but i ended up salvaging and netting money on both trades after AWFUL original entries. (I was long several other stocks at the time, so that's why i only did 100 share lots.)
i also short and cover fairly large lots of naked QQQ calls and puts during daily breakouts and dips, and buy and hold liquid, momentum stocks.. but scalping for me has always been my most consistent way of netting daily profits.
