Scalping and Analysing your trades

Well also on the topic of scalping it's hard to get that kind of share volume into a stock if you are only going to pull a cent.

Right now a good average trade size is 1000 - 3000 which can work out to like $25 - $55 in less than a minute.

All i do is scalping, and differnt types dictate the size of volume i'll try to get in, generally the fast the trade should be the lower the volume - i.e. attain crossing on nasdaq usually less than 1000 shares (also less than 20 seconds) to a GLW trade where you could probably get 10,000 into (3 minutes).

I'm still pretty new to this, but as long as i'm trading because i see a good trade and not because i'm bored and trading to trade it seems like a very sound strategy for me.
 
I used to write down trades. Now I keep an Excel page open on my computer and make 4 entries when I take a position: Time (Excel has a hotkey for this, "CTRL-SHFT-;"), CUSIP, shares, price. The fifth column is a formula that automatically gives me a "drop dead" stop. If I have a provisional stop smaller than the non-discretionary stop, I enter that, too.

When I exit a position, I type in time and price, which takes about 3 seconds. (I also "hide" the row when I exit a trade, so that the spreadsheet stays small on my screen, usually about 1.5 inches high.)

At the end of the day I copy the first 8 columns from the daily sheet into the first 8 columns of my main spreadsheet, which has about 40 columns that generate every statistic I want. such as averages for time periods, stop information, total and average for each issue, even standard deviations.

If I'm not explaining this well, I have a formatted spreadsheet filled with formulas generated by the first 8 columns of raw data. These first 8 columns. where the raw data go, are blank.

I enter the data on a different spreadsheet as I trade, which is about as fast as writing it by hand. At the end of the day, I simply copy and paste the daily sheet into the blank 8 columns of my main spreadsheet. (The only data I have to enter by hand is data having to do with exhange averages. which I use to adjust P/L for short sales as opposed to long entries.)

Of course, I also have a summary page in the main spreadsheet which acccumulates and analyzes the data on a longer-term basis -- weekly and annually.
 
Quote from asinine:

I was saying that i can't focus on the reason for the trade in retrospect because it is based on the flow of the market and the walls on the level 2.

I'm sorry for asking this, but what do you mean by "lineout", it's an unframiliar term to me.
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If you use IB for trading you can use ButtonTrader, this application enables you to record trading sessions (incl. volume, Bid/Ask size and Cum. Bid/Ask*). I'm not sure but I thought X-trader also has this feature.

*not sure, you shut check the website of ButtonTrader
 
Quote from FT79:

If you use IB for trading you can use ButtonTrader, this application enables you to record trading sessions (incl. volume, Bid/Ask size and Cum. Bid/Ask*). I'm not sure but I thought X-trader also has this feature.

*not sure, you shut check the website of ButtonTrader
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X-Trader will keep recordings of the T&S including changes to the bid/ask, etc, but it will not record a trading session. I think Camtasia is best for this. The files can be archived in many different formats and saved on DVD, if needed.
 
Have to have a alot of computer hard drive space and lots of memory if you're going to record your trading day. The video recording will take up a large amount of your computer memory resources and cause your stock quotes and charts to lag or lock up, giving false or stale quotes and charts.
 
Quote from KathrinaM:

Have to have a alot of computer hard drive space and lots of memory if you're going to record your trading day. The video recording will take up a large amount of your computer memory resources and cause your stock quotes and charts to lag or lock up, giving false or stale quotes and charts.
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This is true on older machines or with less memory. A test run must be done to see how much memory is being utilized and how big a file you generate per minute. There are ways around this though.
 
Dear FuturesTrader71,

Do you mean Camtasi Studios??? Because I don't mean recording your action on tape for analysing your behaviour...

ButtonTrader enables you to record trading sessions of the market so you can practice/papertrade. Personally I don't believe in papertrading but imho it will give you "feeling" with the market. Or if you made a mistake during trading you can analyse this by playing this particular session, this is particular helpfull because BT also shows a tickchart*.

You can download a demo on the website of BT including recorded trading sessions http://www.buttontrader.com/

Happy trading

*It's not really a tickchart because IB provides .33 seconds snapshots
 
Quote from FT79:

Dear FuturesTrader71,

Do you mean Camtasi Studios??? Because I don't mean recording your action on tape for analysing your behaviour...

ButtonTrader enables you to record trading sessions of the market so you can practice/papertrade. Personally I don't believe in papertrading but imho it will give you "feeling" with the market. Or if you made a mistake during trading you can analyse this by playing this particular session, this is particular helpfull because BT also shows a tickchart*.

You can download a demo on the website of BT including recorded trading sessions http://www.buttontrader.com/

Happy trading

*It's not really a tickchart because IB provides .33 seconds snapshots
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Oh.. I see. X-Trader does it at the server level, so it is not as easy as Button or TradeMaven to record the session. I know that these recordings are very small because they only keep track of bid/ask/qty/last, etc in a text file and then play it back.

I don't use IB and I have been looking for a high quality realtime data provider to test out some software and to be able to try out products like Button, TradeMaven, MarketDelta, Ensign, etc. The problem is that I have not found a reliable level 2 data provider for Eurex products. eSignal goes out and is delayed too often to ignore.

Anyway, recording your sessions during the most active hour is extremely helpful. You can look back at your trade log and look back to see if you would have taken the same trade again or why you got out or whatever. I highly recommend it for those who feel that their progress is too slow.
 
i know we are no longer talking about video capture, but for those interested in the idea ...

Quote from FuturesTrader71:

This is true on older machines or with less memory. A test run must be done to see how much memory is being utilized and how big a file you generate per minute. There are ways around this though.
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capturepad (http://www.capturepad.com)is also a great option .. very affordable ($25) and i had it configured to use about 700-800k per minute ... i can't think of the guy's name with TopGunSoftware, but he can get his training videos to capture about 60-70 minutes in 14-16meg and still look smooth

hth

take care -

omni
 
Quote from omniscient:

i know we are no longer talking about video capture, but for those interested in the idea ...



capturepad (http://www.capturepad.com)is also a great option .. very affordable ($25) and i had it configured to use about 700-800k per minute ... i can't think of the guy's name with TopGunSoftware, but he can get his training videos to capture about 60-70 minutes in 14-16meg and still look smooth

hth

take care -

omni
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Looks like it might do the job. Doing the 14 day trial now to see how it works. Thanks.
 
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