Who trades on satellite? Is the lag too bad?
- Thread starter wilburbear
- Start date
yes you can... it depends on your style of trades execution. If you prestage pullback and/or breakout orders ahead of price flow, reasonable "lag" doesn't matter.
if you manually click in orders where each price tick is a matter of life or death to the trade, then that's different
the first qualifier question is, how to you place your entry orders? Do you wait for price movement to confirm something to your rules, then place an order that price must pull back into and/or break out thru? Or do you need to instantly click each order thru manually?
that's the first thing to establish before anyone can give a proper reply.
I myself never enter any trades at the market. All of mine are prestaged for either pullbacks or breakouts (or both in stages) around key consolidation zones. So to me it doesn't matter if data is delayed fractions of a second, two seconds or anything in between.
Also know some successful traders in remote areas like Alaska who have nothing else available but dish service and they do fine. All a matter of what one does in the market, I guess.
I don't think anyone serious would consider anything approaching scalping frequency with a satellite feed. The downstream is irrelevant. "Prestage" (wtf that means) your orders because you're gimped by your broadband choice? Sounds reasonable. Change and limit your method because you can't get a suitable internet connection? I don't have a crystal ball, so apparently "pre-staging" is out for me. I'll have to stick with r/t decision-making (and r/t quotes).
Why do ppl colo? Because they can't "prestage"? I can't believe what I read in these forums.
I would like to trade when I travel, but make every attempt not to do so due to the vagaries of cell LTE connections and hotel wifi. I cannot imagine anyone risking serious cash with a satellite feed.
Satellite is fine for the 3-5 trade/week crowd. Or low-freq traders in volatility (me) using marketable limits. Ironically sat would be fine for me. Do not scalp in delta1 with satellite.
I don't think anyone would consider scalping with satellite either. Never suggested otherwise.
"Prestage" orders...
Assume that CL is trading 100.0 bid / 100.01 ask. Key resistance is 100.15 and key support is 99.92 zones. Depending on various factors, I'd be looking one direction only, or neutral bias either way at this moment in time.
If long-only chart bias, I'll enter (prestage) a stop-limit buy order near 100.16 or slightly above. If short-only bias on chart, enter a stop-limit sell order 99.90 and if bias neutral will stage same orders together.
Each directional stop-limit order has a -5 tick automated initial stop-market order upon fill.
Price goes up thru resistance I'm long, down thru support I'm short. Manage trade accordingly if price follows thru, reselect next trade-entry sequences if stopped.
I'm seeking 20+ to 50+ cent gains using -5 cent stops on breakouts or pullbacks as price consolidates. Minimal feed lag is irrelevant most of the time.
Historically my entries have almost all been prestaged but I'm curious as to what latency an at the market scalper would need to be competitive. I'm surprised no one in this thread seems to have an answer. I'll guess that anything north of 80 ms is unacceptable but that is quite an uneducated guess.
Scalping maybe not, but I have over 3G frequently 3 second lags guess that's to get back to me, so 1 - 2 seconds for the fill, I day trade, think 10 - 20 trades per day holding from a few mins to maybe an hour.
If it's cheap to setup I'd give it a go!
No 3G or 4G or ever 2G edge going around there then ??
Not a lot happens in 3 seconds unless your playing with news times.
If it's cheap to setup I'd give it a go!
No 3G or 4G or ever 2G edge going around there then ??
Not a lot happens in 3 seconds unless your playing with news times.
