I trade 50 contracts at a time. I use to continuously make a lot of money since October 2014, but after volatility slacked off slightly this month. Sometimes I make a bunch, but sometimes I lose a bunch.
I did everything to reduce commission so I pay very little.
So first thing I tried was moving stop from -3 ticks to -1 tick when price advance 2 ticks.
Sometimes this help when it goes wrong way, but sometimes also it works against me.
I know this forum doesn't seem to have people who trade many contracts as I do, but just in case anyone does please help, I would really appreciate it.
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My advice: stop doing what you are doing. As you've described it, it is very clearly a poor strategy. And to come and create a thread and ask what you did only serves to reinforce my belief you have no where near the necessary experience to be a successful scalper.
Wait for volatility to pick up, that seems like your issue. Find ways to measure volatility and/or find another strategy when it slacks off. You might also have better luck simply by increasing your stop/limits distance and reducing your contract size accordingly.
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I thought I found a way regardless of volatility, but I guess I was wrong. I was measuring volatility with 1 min ATR, so I only traded when volatility was high enough. However, sometimes even though when the number was high enough, ES sometimes just moved side ways taking out my stops.
if you believe a trade should move without much resistance, why would you limit to 3ticks in ES...a 3point
move should be a scalp imo.
...needless to say if you're going to hyper scalp and churn your account with commissions, use a 2 or 3 range bar or say 300ticks, add bollinger bands or vwap and trade extremes...
still think it's mostly gambling approach..
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@SeoulPropTrader look at CL for scalping. IMO it's the most easy to scalp for 4-10 ticks because of the way it consistently fluctuates back and forth in a somewhat fluidic nature (almost like a yo-yo at times). Sometimes NQ and even ES will move like CL during times of volatility but you generally won't see that happen unless there is a lot of fundamental drivers.
What I suggest you do is pull up a chart of CL on one screen, a chart of NQ on another, and one of ES on another. From there look at all of them simultaneously and just eyeball the movements they're making from tick to tick. Make a mental note on which one is most viable to your strategy.
R.I.P. Joseph Bach (Itchymoku), 1987-2018.
Please visit this thread for more information.
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Seems like most other people are already hit the nail on the head with looking at CL to find a bit more volatility.
I wonder though, why market orders if the strategy is focused around the time frame of cash open? It would seem as if a limit order would be easily filled during that opening market action, and then you're already +1 ticks better off compared to your market entry. On top of that, the opening market range usually establishes at least 12 ticks, so if you're able to accurately call which direction the cash open will move, why leave the other 9 ticks on the table?
It seems you could easily say take 50 ticks off +3, and the rest +12. That would not be my preferred strategy, but I think it would be worth exploring how that would chance your overall P&L curve.
I would also explore how accurately you are able to call the direction of the market during cash open and refine your analysis to increase the accuracy if it's currently at only 50%.
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I have an ES scalping strategy for a 4 tick profit. I suppose you could exit on 3 ticks if you want to.
I wrote an indicator for this also. It's written for Trade Station. If you're using trade station I would be happy to share it with you.
I'm going to go ahead and say that the fact that you're trading 50 contracts at a clip and you've done everything possible to minimize your trading costs means that you're less likely to lose your equity than others. But, I have to agree with Mike . . . You should probably stop what you're doing.
You talk about scaling back on vague terms like "if it's still not going well in a week". You need to have a quantifiable approach to position sizing. If it's not going well (your equity curve is declining) then you should be reducing the number of contracts you trade according to an objective mathematical formula. Not on gut instinct, or when you feel like it. This doesn't mean you have to trade quantitatively - I'm just talking about position size.
If your strategy depends upon volatility then find some way to measure it, and don't trade when markets are quiet.
Site Administrator Swing Trader Data Scientist & DevOps
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In a self-promotion/vendor type of way, especially considering you did not notify us of your vendor status as required and as you were told when signing up.
It's a while since I signed up, but I wasn't aware that I'd failed to declare anything during the signup process. If I have, then it's accidental - please do feel free to edit my profile to correct this. I'm not here to sell or promote any product, but to share what experience I have and to learn from others.
If you feel my participation in the site won't be beneficial then just let me know and I'll stop posting.
