When you leave the table intrady scalper?

[Laissez Faire]

I don't see many people here posting winnings. Credit to you.

Done after 1-minute today. 3 points x 5 contracts => 1 trade and done.

These large gaps up can go both ways. Most of them usually have some retracement lower, but it's uncertain, so I decided it was not a day to press my luck. Probably done for the day.

II was tongue in cheek. I do like the idea of trading the morning and having the rest of the day free. Not really free for me but able to perform duties of my day job

I have been swing trading SPY for a little while and now curious about day trading the ES emini. Right now working on seeing if the stuff I use to trade SPY on the daily might apply ES intraday.

Thank you for your responding to me.

To be honest, if you have no experience day trading futures, I would think about it for a while before embracing upon this journey. Even consistently taking only 1 point per day is incredibly hard and something most who try won't be able to do. The only ones who will tell you differently are the snake oil sellers or fake gurus.

I would have been much wealthier and happier if I just stuck with swing trading 10 years ago instead of pursuing day trading. Maybe my efforts will pay off now, but I'm not yet rich from day trading.

 

[Laissez Faire]

By the way - a big key to success in this game is knowing when to stay the hell out and learning not to trade if you're uncertain.

Some people are afraid of pulling the trigger while others simply jump into the market without much thought at all. One can go a long way just by eliminating poor/impulsive trades. I'm still learning this lesson.

 

[NumberZ]

To be honest, if you have no experience day trading futures, I would think about it for a while before embracing upon this journey. Even consistently taking only 1 point per day is incredibly hard and something most who try won't be able to do. The only ones who will tell you differently are the snake oil sellers or fake gurus.

In other words, "don't quit your day job!"

I have no intentions. I have a pretty good life. Since the pandemic my office is permanently in my home. I am customer facing, so my afternoons are filled with Zoom meetings and some face to face meetings. But the mornings are pretty much mine.

My interest in day trading ES is purely from a hobby perspective. I recently opened a sim account with Ninjatrader brokerage. I have not yet place a live trade. If I ever place an actual day trade, I will start with the micro contract. I have already decided that if I sink (read: lose) more than $1K in this hobby, I'll be done with it.

I would have been much wealthier and happier if I just stuck with swing trading 10 years ago instead of pursuing day trading. Maybe my efforts will pay off now, but I'm not yet rich from day trading.

I do appreciate your honesty. In my eyes, the value of your opinion is increased by your humility.

 

[Raheel Shaikh]

For what it's worth, and that may not be much, I'm trading a scalping strategy myself now in a separate account. With the current volatility I'm targeting 3 points per day x 5 contracts. That's my goal for the day.

I will take that with 1 or 2 trades (2 x 1,5).

Today, I took 3 trades. 1 x 0.25 points (B/E + 1 tick stop out). 1 x 3.0 points. 1 x 3.0 points. For a total of 6.25 points.

Trading wise, I was done after 29 minutes (excluding pre-market preparations).

What I like about this strategy:

1. It's measurable / realistic.

2. Everything after my buy/sell order is submitted is automated. My trading software will lock in 1 tick of profits after 2 points MFE and my exit order is automatically submitted based on fill price.

3. Instead of trying to squeeze every single tick out of a trade and constantly monitor the market/trade, I'm thinking: "Where can I get in and out safely for 3 points?" There's no FOMO if the market runs away from me as I accomplished my goal. In and out. Ring the cash register.

4. I'm usually done very quickly and can choose to continue trading or not.

In my main account I'm attempting to catch the larger swings of the day, but I'm not as consistent doing that and it requires more screen time. So, I've been doing something similar in my main account except that I will allow myself to trail a stop behind price in order to catch bigger moves when my read of the market suggests that can happen.

View attachment 268980

Quality post man

You got a solid trade plan and discipline

1:3RR has been very effective for me to get enough out of the market from each trade, regardless how high it goes after hitting my take profit.

 

[Relentless]

Quality post man

You got a solid trade plan and discipline

1:3RR has been very effective for me to get enough out of the market from each trade, regardless how high it goes after hitting my take profit.

+1

This is good stuff LF. Do you ever let any of your contracts run? For example you were running 5 here so maybe out @ 3 pts w/ 4c and let the 5th run with a B/E stop?

Just curious. To me the scalps at higher leverage give you all you need - and my runners are just a bonus if they go.

 

[Leob]

+1

This is good stuff LF. Do you ever let any of your contracts run? For example you were running 5 here so maybe out @ 3 pts w/ 4c and let the 5th run with a B/E stop?

Just curious. To me the scalps at higher leverage give you all you need - and my runners are just a bonus if they go.

I very much agree. As I see it the first hour and a half is the bread and butter. You should scalp with high degree of discipline.You should understand the risk(and chance ) in this kind of volatility.
In the rest of the day try to catch the general direction of the market.For example if after hour and half nice support line with market moves up..
Maybe it worth to get involved. Switching perspective after around 90 minutes, from quick scalper to long intrady swing yieald good reault.
Sometimes the scalp mearged with whole day direction. And this is BOOM

 

[Handle123]

I do 9/1, 9 at makeable target and 1 for homerun, for myself only 1-2 homeruns occurs a week, that being said I average 50-60 trades for 345 minutes, so if I tried more for more longer profits would affect overall day. I do better in chop environment, really more of a grinder type experience.

Actually average better in Crude Oil than ES, but ES volume is king...

 

[Leob]

I do 9/1, 9 at makeable target and 1 for homerun, for myself only 1-2 homeruns occurs a week, that being said I average 50-60 trades for 345 minutes, so if I tried more for more longer profits would affect overall day. I do better in chop environment, really more of a grinder type experience.

Actually average better in Crude Oil than ES, but ES volume is king...

Sound great.

 

[tiddlywinks]

This is good stuff LF. Do you ever let any of your contracts run? For example you were running 5 here so maybe out @ 3 pts w/ 4c and let the 5th run with a B/E stop?

This type of modification will have a big affect on results, and should be tested extensively. And if the results are positive it begs the question, why only 1 runner? Why not adjust the initial target for all 5? Oh wait, that's a different trade!

 

[Bad_Badness]

By the way - a big key to success in this game is knowing when to stay the hell out and learning not to trade if you're uncertain.

Some people are afraid of pulling the trigger while others simply jump into the market without much thought at all. One can go a long way just by eliminating poor/impulsive trades. I'm still learning this lesson.

This leads back to the OP question. Adding to this, (when and when not), sometimes you need to exit before the Stop or the target. A lot of system are Win or Loss. But there, imo should be a "scratch" category. You eat the commissions, but if the premise has a time element, or an expected next move, or "should not happen" and it is not working out, scratch is a choice.

BTW: eliminated 50% of the trades in the system and ended up 8 points, Wednesday (32 trades). Today Thursday at 8 trades and up 5 points. High water mark was at 7:00 or 30 minutes in. Still trading (14 trades) and treading water.... Next system change will be to filter another category of setups and continue the optimization.