When you leave the table intrady scalper?

[Laissez Faire]

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.

If you only have $1K to spend and will succeed without losing those you must qualify for some kind of record.

There's a tuition to be paid for sure, both in time invested and money, but it's also true that you don't have to lose a great deal of money as you can practice or stay small. I've traded too large earlier and as a result had fairly big losses that I should not have needed to take as I was not ready to play that big.

 

[Laissez Faire]

+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.

Not with this strategy/account, no. I did increase my target to 5 points yesterday on 1 trade and probably could have done a bit more as I had confidence in a greater move coming. But then I'm starting to cross over to another style of trading. I wil rather just stick with this and see if I can start increasing contracts slowly.

The idea here is to simply get in/out rather quickly. Ideally. Exit on a pre-defined limit order. No meddling. No thinking or scheming about where to exit.

But let's say you 'get lucky' and have one runner on 1 contract give you 15 or 20 points.

That's still not much more than 3 points on 5 contracts. So, in the end, maybe it's better to simply exit all and rather take another scalp trade on 5 contracts.

I was long yesterday in my main account and caught a rather large bite of that rally, so I'm still trading my 'main method' in my main account, but I'm not as consistent doing that. Plenty of times I've had large unrealized profits turn into small profits as I'm chasing the big one.

 

[Laissez Faire]

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.

Yes. Getting out when a trade isn't working as expected or something changed in the market is very important. Most people probably just sit around waiting for their stop to get hit or hoping the market turns. It takes discipline to do that and take those smaller losses before they get bigger.

 

[Handle123]

I grade each trade, one pattern normally gets 2pts in one minute, but if I am still in it 30 seconds of 2nd minute, get out at profit or new target is "BE". So each of 3 patterns, have limits of trying to get target plus extra 1 for runner if it reached target. The difference in this system than other scalping systems I have built is if a trend signal taken then counter-trend occurs, target of 2pts taken, exit reverses back into trend signal, so new for me of zig zagging into the longer swing.

But once 6 tick bars in ES start happening, reversing stops, plus targets lower to 4 ticks and PS reduces depending on the signal. Tighter ranges can sell high and buy low, back and forth, risk ticks instead of points.

But for me Crude Oil adheres to normal chart patterns more especially swings occur more of 100 ticks before reversal, trends better.

I always concentrate DURING trade of risk/reward, if target is 8 ticks and it is up 6 ticks, am not going to risk 6 to get 2, have to lock in something, and if it get to plus 7, up PS more. At this point watching 2 tick chart, if it is oscillating too long, I take the 6 ticks, there be another trade before long.

But you really have to know trade averages of winning signals. Have to know what the "mean" of time for each signal, if you find you end up losing too often over staying the trade, shorten duration and bring up PS quicker to lock in.

 

[NumberZ]

f you only have $1K to spend and will succeed without losing those you must qualify for some kind of record.

I am cheap. I see no reason to go broke. If I can make a go of it, great. If not, great. The micro contract is $5 per point. Margin for a micro is $40 at Ninjatrader Brokerage. I can lose $960 or 192 points before I'd not have margin to do a trade. Sounds like a good stop loss lol

If I am careless enough to lose that much I have no business trying to lose even more. Also, your comment this morning about swing trading has me thinking. I have done ok swing trading SPY. I want to go over my trades and see how I would have made out if I had traded MES micros instead.

Good comments. Thank you.

 

[longandshort]

It’s just amazing seeing how many people think you can actually go to the market and “scalp” a profit on a daily basis lol.

 

[Relentless]

It’s just amazing seeing how many people think you can actually go to the market and “scalp” a profit on a daily basis lol.

Yes. All that real money going into their accounts after many years of hard work and study. What a travesty.

People have been scalping profitably for decades now. I personally enjoy the style because I can typically be done by lunch everyday after taking as few as a single trade.

What's with the power grudge against scalpers anyway? Mental block? Just so odd...

 

[longandshort]

Yes. All that real money going into their accounts after many years of hard work and study. What a travesty.

People have been scalping profitably for decades now. I personally enjoy the style because I can typically be done by lunch everyday after taking as few as a single trade.

What's with the power grudge against scalpers anyway? Mental block? Just so odd...

Nothing wrong with you trying to play a 50/50 game lol, but I find it funny that there is an expectation of profit from so many (when the actual ex-post result is losses due to paying the bid ask spread with no edge).

 

[Bad_Badness]

I grade each trade,

I always concentrate DURING trade of risk/reward,

But you really have to know trade averages of winning signals.

Risk reward DURING the trade is key IMO.

I probably need to change trade management tools because with IBTWS really you only have an "single trigger" adjustable stop and a trail stop. If there were multiple trigger-adjustments possible, then one could include an adjustment for the start of the favorable move, a BE point, target close don't loose it, and an Target close-tight stop. Going manual is too slow and inaccurate.

On your other points, so much agree, measuring it key and without it. Note to other traders, it is really hard to get any traction towards consistent positive P/L, without measuring your trades and trading.

 

[Bad_Badness]

That's still not much more than 3 points on 5 contracts. So, in the end, maybe it's better to simply exit all and rather take another scalp trade on 5 contracts.

I tend to agree. A runner feels a lot like FOMO and adds a lot of complication-energy spent that can be used on the next full size trade.

BTW: Today was 21 trades for 6 points. Looking forward to tomorrow as I finished the modifications, so IF I can execute, should be more points and/or less trades. Looking to stabilize in the next two trading days.