Scalping

[maildigger]

I trade the ES but I'm not a scalper. I was wondering what kind of entry techniques scalpers use (tape reading, candlestick patterns,...)? Is profitable scalping possible with a risk/reward <1 ? Who has expierience with scalping (target 2-6 ticks) and wish to share his/her experience!

[walterw]

Mail : you want to check the "flip" trade thread, its mainly a scalping technique... so far works nice.... ES maybe has too small range to scalp, should you consider Russell or YM for this purposes... cheers Walter.

[brownsfan019]

Depending on how you trade, the EC (Euro FX) could be an option as well.

[The Bear]

	Quote:	maildigger
	I trade the ES but I'm not a scalper. I was wondering what kind of entry techniques scalpers use (tape reading, candlestick patterns,...)? Is profitable scalping possible with a risk/reward <1 ? Who has expierience with scalping (target 2-6 ticks) and wish to share his/her experience!

Hey..i'm an oil & gas scalper. I'm not sure if you said LESS THAN 1 or GREATER THAN 1 above...I'm not good at math. If you meant LESS THAN 1, yes it's possible, I do it all the time and make money at the end of the month.

I think it's hard to find people to tell you HOW to do it, because it's something you have to just do to learn. Nobody taught me how to scalp, I don't know if it's even possible to learn from someone. I'm sort of protective of my operations...even though I know it's silly and lame to be like this (maybe I have low self esteem?) I probably know nothing of value to you...but you may want to check my previous posts since I may have said stuff about it, and you could try messaging the guy Cooter - I think he's a grain scalper and his posts are somewhat interesting.

Scalping is very demanding and cut throat, and if you are wrong, your losses grow out of control very quick. I think I recall experiencing 10 losing trades in a row...step carefully or the commissions & losses will chew away at your account very fast....like termites.

That being said I think you should consider it. Start off as small as you possibly can.

>Who has expierience with scalping (target 2-6 ticks)
I may be wrong, but scalping I don't think is about how many ticks, it's about the hold time. Someone maybe trading off a 2-min chart going for 6 ticks over a span of minutes, but I don't consider this scalping.

I feel the gambling element is somewhat higher in scalping. I risk alot more to make small quick gains. It's very close to gambling in my opinion. I think scalping originated from local floor speculators (commodity exchange floor gamblers)...but it's possible as a public speculator to do it in almost any market...thanks to direct access trading.

Send me a message in the future if I can possibly help you.

[cooter]

One thing I will note here is that the difference in my P/L has been mainly a switch from scalping for mere ticks to trading for full points.

When I was micro-scalping, I was stopped out way too often. But when I expanded my horizons, and started using full points as my increments, trading became much easier.

Another thing is ... don't be afraid or hesitant to incorporate new ideas into your trading plan. This very forum is a good example of technically solid trading methodologies that you can tweak and implement at your leisure.

If it works for you keep it. If it doesn't works, get rid it of it, and try something else. Evaluate your approach, including your entries and exits. Is your strategy actually valid to begin with? If not, you'll probably be on your way to blowing out your account in short order.

Good luck!

[walterw]

	Quote:	cooter
	One thing I will note here is that the difference in my P/L has been mainly a switch from scalping for mere ticks to trading for full points. When I was micro-scalping, I was stopped out way too often. But when I expanded my horizons, and started using full points as my increments, trading became much easier. Another thing is ... don't be afraid or hesitant to incorporate new ideas into your trading plan. This very forum is a good example of technically solid trading methodologies that you can tweak and implement at your leisure. If it works for you keep it. If it doesn't works, get rid it of it, and try something else. Evaluate your approach, including your entries and exits. Is your strategy actually valid to begin with? If not, you'll probably be on your way to blowing out your account in short order. Good luck!

I am scalper by definition... now since I am on TL thanks to cooter, brown and others I have been expanding my horizon to make runners give me some special edge on my RRR... and be able to some times get out with some points... thanks guys for your inputs on all threads.... cheers Walter.

[wsam29]

Its kinda hard to scalp the ES when the levels are 1000 lot thick at times and the range it too tight.

Even when you scalp, you need to have a trading plan, don't shot from the hip because even if you're breaking even each trade, commissions will chew you apart and at the end of the day, all you have to show for is spent mental energy.

In the e-minis, if your trade takes more than 30 minutes, from my experience and stats, tends to be a losing trade.

All Trades /Winners/ Losers
Total Number of Trades 17 /13/ 4

Time Averages
Avg. Time in Trades 16 Mins 12 Mins 29 Mins

avg. time for my winners, 12 minutes, 10-11 tick targets
avg. time for my losers, 29 minutes, 20 tick stop.

Every trader would like their trade entry to be winning the moment they enter, the shorter time you're in, you reduce your risk and that's the whole key to scalping in my opinion.

Just like that line from "Rounder" "Get your money in when you have and hand and protect your chips when you don't."

[hanz]

do you guys scalp using the DOM?

[Soultrader]

Never seen anyone do it. I scalp off the tape.

[tim4]

	Quote:	maildigger
	I trade the ES but I'm not a scalper. I was wondering what kind of entry techniques scalpers use (tape reading, candlestick patterns,...)? Is profitable scalping possible with a risk/reward <1 ? Who has expierience with scalping (target 2-6 ticks) and wish to share his/her experience!

Hi Mail. I'm experimenting with ES, taking usually 4-8 ticks from each trade. My average loss is less than my average gain, and I run 55%+ on winrate. I hope to get better, but it's a start. I use price and time/sales only, mostly using limit orders against daily floor pivot levels. When the price is above support, for instance, and seems to be staying in the channel under the next up pivot line,I'll enter a buy limit order just above the support line. It's a pretty standard way of trading, and many times I'll get filled long on the bid and sell at the ask, so slippage is controlled to some degree.

It's certainly not a very sophisticated method, but I haven't been able to make oscillating indicators work reliably. They lag so much that the move is half over by the time I can get in.

The distance between floor pivot levels and their midpoints is usually about 2 points, so that's my typical range of profits except when the tape indicates more trend strength at the pivot. Losses are usually stopped at 4 points, which is easy to calculate because the stop loss point is just on the other side of the pivot line.

Like to hear from anyone using this simple S/R method.