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Like the title says, I've been testing it out on a 512 tick chart, only staying in a position for 10-30 seconds. I use exit brackets, so the trade auto exits at 2 - 3 ticks. Is this sustainable compared to longer day trading? Haven't been using any indicators just volume and price. Any indicators work best for scalping?
Commissions makes it hard that way to scalp in my opinion but it depends on your broker fees. Do less trades try to scalp in a longer term position that would be my advice. Hold the winners. But if it works for you with 3 Ticks then do it. Test it if it works for you go for it.
I will tell you my opinion, based on my personal experience: this strategy in unsustainable.
Of course, this is only my opinion but I will tell you something that I have learnt over the years:
the smaller the timeframe, the more difficult trading becomes
on small timeframes you are competing against robots and algos, trading is more mechanical and algos excell in that environment
transaction costs are crazy high
most scalpers lose money, look at trading journals in this website ...you will see that as people get better they ask more money to their winners
by scalping you are making money for the broker so you will find a lot of people telling that scalping is the way to go (and they will have a huge interest in telling you that)
philosophically the more risk you take, the more money you make: being in the market for longer time is a risk, and if you manage it correctly it will pay you
look at big big traders, they are normally swing traders or day traders with longer time frames
in longer time frames there is a strategy, there is something meaningful you trade.... so in case you are stopped out you get paid with market understanding, so you lose money but you got paid with something else.
Of course this is my opinion, scalpers will tell you the opposite so it's definitely worth trying every different style.
You can make money scalping the emini. The vast majority of people don't, but it can be done.
But not for 3 ticks. The noise in ES is more like 8-12 ticks so it's pretty difficult to get the consistent winrate you need to get that to work. The only way I see this working is if it is some sort of momentum trade where your risk/reward is equal and you're getting an incredibly high winrate.
Try developing a system using 5 mins bars. Done right, you can get 4-12+ ticks per trade, perhaps as many as 10 trades a day. One key tip: learn what an uptrend and downtrend is and how to identify it. Why? The signals are different for those phases of the market.
Developing a system is tedious work. But it is what separates the winners from the losers. Cliche, I know but outside of employing a system, you're gambling and the house will always win.
@Big Mike is the forum owner and top admin and from reading his trading journal, he has the experience of reading hundreds or thousands of trader's journals since starting this forum and from his experience he says it is not sustainable and you will not find anyone that can prove they scalp and make big bucks long term.
From my experience, it is an evil temptation of greed and learning to be patient with trades is actually more profitable.
Can you make money.........Well at 2 to 3 ticks on the ES....25 - 37.50/contract and the commission on the round turn being 4.50/contract
....sure ..do that 10-20 times a day....which is relatively easy or not...you can make money....its a lot of work....but the trades are quick....I find it easier on the NQ....lot more movement than the ES...but a lot more reversals/turns(volatility) ...you have to have something that tells you direction/trend....and strength of move, are you in a chop(no trade zone) or is it an actual move to the upside or downside.... and i use a simple bollinger band(34, .06) and EMA(either 9 or 14) for that.... and then I modify the price bars to a Kagi line....which has a thin and a thick line.....I make them both thick....what you will notice is your best scalp time is when the EMA moves outside of the Bollinger bands and your Kagi line is either green for the upside or red for the downside.... when the EMA is inside the Bollinger.....no trade zone.....but you will learn how to handle that....you now have part of the Holy Grail......There is more....but try this first to see if it doesnt help you out with your scalp timing......
