The Ultimate DAX Scalping Discussion Thread!
- Thread starter Scientist
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I know what you mean. For me it at this point in my development it means walking away and cooling down. I didn't catch the magnitude of the DAX move that you caught this morning but I did short ES at 27.5 so it's about the same and I was happy with my trading overall. What I did was to take a nice walk, when I got back I decided to call and setup a yoga class starting next week as my reward. To be honest for me participation in theses public forums are a distraction, too much temptation to bask in my own glory besides the aggrevation of dealing with the inevitable jerks that make comments.. which I'm sure I've been myself at times. I have set up my own website with a private forum, there I can post my journal and my own private feelings. I was told by a trading coach once that I might have some control issues which probably makes it harder for me to deal so well openly in public forums 
Wow madf - That's a mad setup indeed... Kinda just "floating around like a mad fish on the desktop"...
And I'm trying to squeeze out every millimeter out of every monitor...
Attached is my own setup for main chart screen - The tapes are on the execution platform screen as "always-on-top", right next to the depths.
Actually, both. Or more like passion over profit, even! I though I could make trading "just a job", but on the other hand, it isn't "just a job". It's a passion. And I think you need passion in anything you do if you want to be really successful. That's why I kind of left my old business behind - I was very successful, and made a lot of people very happy. Yet, I didn't find enough excitement.
Now that I'm a trader, I'm not really making anybody happy, people think I'm a "greedy wanker" because I'm in finance and because I drive a fast car, and generally pretty much many things are foul about trading. But then, I have passion for it. And I think that makes up for all of this.
My whole life has always been designed around the maxim that passion drives success, and you can't succeed without lots of passion, no matter how smart you are. If you're passionate, you can achieve anything.
And that's the primer to your answer: Yes, I trade for excitement, for action, and for the challenge. Money, and profit, as you say, comes completely tertiary to me! You might see trading for "profit", I don't! I know this sounds paradox, but when people ask me "how much did you make today" - Quite often I won't even know! I'll go back, count the net $ P&L and then I'll know.
While I'm trading, I completely see this as a game, like an arcade game, for getting a highscore! I don't think about profit at all!!! In fact, I contacted the developer of my execution platform to build in an optional P&L display in net Ticks, rather than $ - And he did it! Scores, not dollars!
Believe it or not, all of this is true.
Great post. Really great post. I'd say I feel much the same way about most of those things!Quote from dpanic:
I know what you mean. For me it at this point in my development it means walking away and cooling down. I didn't catch the magnitude of the DAX move that you caught this morning but I did short ES at 27.5 so it's about the same and I was happy with my trading overall. What I did was to take a nice walk, when I got back I decided to call and setup a yoga class starting next week as my reward. To be honest for me participation in theses public forums are a distraction, too much temptation to bask in my own glory besides the aggrevation of dealing with the inevitable jerks that make comments.. which I'm sure I've been myself at times. I have set up my own website with a private forum, there I can post my journal and my own private feelings. I was told by a trading coach once that I might have some control issues which probably makes it harder for me to deal so well openly in public forums
The walk is a good idea. This is another problem of mine... Whenever I accumulate a shit-load in a very short time, particularly on a single trade (like a sudden 30pts on DAX), I tend to get really riled up, like I'm on speed! It's often hard to stay focused then, so I will try and meditate to clear my mind and/or channel some energy into slow kata (Karate forms, a bit like Tai Chi) to calm down, and if that doesn't work I call it a day, grab my gf and go out with her or sth like that. For those here who don't know the "buzz" feeling, visualize yourself having just made 5-10K in the last hour or better, few minutes, and then trying to stay calm...
I know this seems to directly contradict with my "trading for scores rather than profit" philosophy, but then again it doesn't. Imagine you're in an arcade hall on a very popular game and you've just cracked the all-time high-score... Profit? No. Excitement? Hell yeah!
I find this the most difficult and most dangerous problem to deal with these "extreme performances". I think it's my last really big "hurdle" I have to overcome.
dpanic, I also totally agree on your points on the public forums. There's far too many jerks and naysayers here, not exactly what I call an enabling atmosphere. I should probably consider my own private website & forum, too.
Cheerio!
Scientist
Just an fyi to pass on a learning experience I recently had. I think I told you that last year I was trading the DAX opening session(I'm in USA east coast) so that's 3:00am my time, taking "power naps" but not getting a solid block of sleep. This past year about a week or 2 before xmas I decided to take some time off thru the end of the year, in doing so I came to realize that the lack of rest was a real issue for me. I didn't even realize it was such an issue until I took the time off. So.. now I'm skipping the DAX open, trading 9:30-3:30 east coast. I've found that I've been in the groove like never before these past 2 weeks. It's like my skills grew during those 12 hour trading days but my head was so scattered from lack of good rest that I had no focus and was not executing efficiently. It's funny, about 2 years ago I remember making fun of a trader that was working too many hours and seeing all sorts of stuff that wasn't there, without realizing it I walked into that trap. Thankfully I caught the problem, am now focusing on rest, exercise and good food.
Lesson learned.. take care of your body and mind. No matter how tuff you think you are or how well you think you feel your mind needs to be at 100% to trade at the intuitive level, that's why I decided to try yoga for a while.
Lesson learned.. take care of your body and mind. No matter how tuff you think you are or how well you think you feel your mind needs to be at 100% to trade at the intuitive level, that's why I decided to try yoga for a while.
Tip: Remember that markets are totally random and efficient, thus there cannot be made any money, especially since future trading is a zero sum game. Therefore your recent performance was only a statistical exuberance on the far right side of the probability distribution
Captain... Probability Warship decloaking starboard, sir! I'm not too sure about this... LOLQuote from Captain Future:
Tip: Remember that markets are totally random and efficient, thus there cannot be made any money, especially since future trading is a zero sum game. Therefore your recent performance was only a statistical exuberance on the far right side of the probability distribution
This might rightly apply in the larger timeframes, but in the smallest fractals (scalping for ticks or a few points) it doesn't really. It isn't only "a statistical exuberance on the far right side of the probability distribution". While this might apply for John Bollinger's or Nassim Taleb's position trading, it doesn't for scalping. Scalpers make a living by anticipating short-term movements. A scalper CAN NOT succeed unless he has a very good predictive advantage! I don't claim to "know" what the market will do with certainty, but I can consistently identify short-term momentum shifts and drive my axe into the spread!
I used to have a hit rate over 70% and higher at times - Not anymore, because now I tend to exit after ~1-3T against me! Clearly, with smaller stops, your hit rate suffers dramatically. But your R:R ratio improves on the other side! Now I cut most losers within ticks or at breakeven, and let the winners run preferably for several points! But again, unless you have an anticipative touch, even the R:R ratio won't help you - You'll only get chopped to death! So you really need to get an eye for picking a good moment "opportunity window" every minute or every few minutes. AND your exiting strategy needs to be very refined! You need to be at least as good at exiting as entering - Most people fail on the exit side of things.
Markets might be totally random and efficient on a daily chart, and it may be a zero sum game. Sure.
Just look at today's massive fall: Volume stalls, price hits a trend line or is completely overbought, momentum shifts, people soon start selling off like crazy and I hit the bid, is that random? Whatever moves the people on the bid to be mad enough to sit there willing to buy I really don't know. Perhaps slow brokers, orderfillers and crazy short-term traders, and maybe a few beginners. Whatever, I take it with a "thank you" and move on a few levels lower. I do this 50-150 times a day. Would you call this zero-sum or completely random???
I don't believe it.