I was a senior trader. Now I’m a programmer. Here’s why

Yeah, I hear what you are saying. I've been experimenting with scalping. My win rate(which is always deceptive) is almost 100%(at least high 90s). If buy then offer out a few seconds later I always win. I find it exhausting to trade like that. Maybe I just need to train myself. Just experimenting with this style vs the pure chart analysis that holds for 10-30mins to an hour.

I feel like 2 ES Points or the equivalent in YM/NQ points isn't that hard. But you have to account for losses. All is great when you are doing fine. But losses is where they get ya...

Let's see how this experiment goes...

If your scalping is really that profitable, you should program a auto-trading system to trade it instead of manually trading it. I agree manual scalping is a killer.
 
If your scalping is really that profitable, you should program a auto-trading system to trade it instead of manually trading it. I agree manual scalping is a killer.

Maybe. I NEVER said my scalping was really profitable. I only said it had a high win rate, which is deceiving metric. Since one big loss can wipe out all the small gains. Still working on that...

My native style(if one can call it that) is to hold longer. Maybe there's a happy middle ground since commissions add up really quick when scalping on IB. I know if you do enough volume it will go down. I can't do that kind of volume without automation. Even then i think I prefer to capture intraday trends. Let's see.
 
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Maybe. I NEVER said my scalping was really profitable. I only said it had a high win rate, which is deceiving metric. Since one big loss can wipe out all the small gains. Still working on that...

My native style(if one can call it that) is to hold longer. Maybe there's a happy middle ground since commissions add up really quick when scalping on IB. I know if you do enough volume it will go down. I can't do that kind of volume without automation. Even then i think I prefer to capture intraday trends. Let's see.

Agreed. If you are only scalping for small profits at a time, your SL targets is going to be pretty tight and you are going to be subject to whipshaws. And if you left a profit run then you won't be scalping anymore. I know it's tough.
 
"I had a great 25-year run as a Wall Street trader, but I have had to adapt to stay relevant. I have focused on learning to code in C#, C++, Java, R, Python, HTML5, .NET Framework, T-SQL and others in order to appeal to employers in the financial services industry. Now I’m coder instead."

25 year run? Sounds like an old codger, probably 50+
Last thing i'd want to do is learn programming after age 50. Life is too short
 
25 year run? Sounds like an old codger, probably 50+
Last thing i'd want to do is learn programming after age 50. Life is too short
Takes approximately 2 years to learn a programming language fluently. To learning to code in C#, C++, Java, R, Python, HTML5, .NET Framework, T-SQL , from ground 0, will take a long time. Good luck.
 
Takes approximately 2 years to learn a programming language fluently. To learning to code in C#, C++, Java, R, Python, HTML5, .NET Framework, T-SQL , from ground 0, will take a long time. Good luck.

Yes, but once you thoroughly learn one programming language, it is takes much less time to learn another language, especially if the languages are very similar, such as C# and Java.
 
Yes, but once you thoroughly learn one programming language, it is takes much less time to learn another language, especially if the languages are very similar, such as C# and Java.

I understand the desire to "automate trading". (It would be wonderful if we could just turn on the computer before the market opens, go spend the day at the golf course, then return home to pick up the money and head off to the bank.)

Seems to me that you'd need to understand "what and how" to trade before automating anything. Most traders barely have a clue as to what they should be trying to automate. JMV.

Like most, I'm a retail screen jockey. I'm watching for perhaps a dozen different things which command action. I can see trying to automate "a thing", but could you automate 12 different trading plays into a program??
 
Maybe. I NEVER said my scalping was really profitable. I only said it had a high win rate, which is deceiving metric. Since one big loss can wipe out all the small gains. Still working on that...


When you're scalping, much more so than with most other kinds of trading, you need the price to move in your direction really quickly after entry: if it doesn't, then it was a bad entry and it's a trade you don't want to be in. For this reason, very tight stop-losses are appropriate for scalping - which obviates the risk of one big loss wiping out multiple small profits.
 
Yes, but once you thoroughly learn one programming language, it is takes much less time to learn another language, especially if the languages are very similar, such as C# and Java.
Yes, you'll be able to program at a junior level after a couple of years of full time coding. Takes awhile to become fully fluent and memorize vendor functions / classes. i mean without referring to manuals. I've worked with senior programmers with 8+ years of experience multiple manuals open.
 
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