Lost 25K as a long in the past year ... Gained 4K scalping in the past 3 days!

D

denrou

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I obviously found my trading style, lol.

It has been a rough year in 08 and the beginning of 09 for me and just when I was ready to quit with the stock market, I started scalping last week and have been up 4k in the past 3 days of trading ... pretty sweet.

I don't know much about this trading style but though I would try it and it works well with my trading personality.

What I am wondering is what I would need to get this working even better for me. I currently have a TD Waterhouse broker account (I am guessing this is the Canadian version of TD Ameritrade) and would like to know what kind of software that would be compatible with my broker account, I am open to anything that would help execute my trades faster and with more EASE. Right now I am wasting too much time clicking back and forth and the broker software I have (Active Trade) is not the best to make those quick 0.01$ profits. I know I could do better.

What is the majority of traders using (software, brokers, techniques, indicator charts, etc...) out there to scalp trade very small amounts (0.01$ - 0.03$)?

Also if anyone has more information in guiding me in the right direction with excellent articles, books, and any other material that would be greatly appreciate.

Thanks for your help!
 
denrou said:
What is the majority of traders using (software, brokers, techniques, indicator charts, etc...) out there to scalp trade very small amounts (0.01$ - 0.03$)?

Also if anyone has more information in guiding me in the right direction with excellent articles, books, and any other material that would be greatly appreciate.
Click to expand...
To scalp, you really need some "Direct Access" trading platform. Can't really use the Internet brower based system.

Many brokers offer Direct Access (level 2) trading platforms. Such as Realtick (many brokers support it), Schwab's StreetSmart Pro, etc.. But they charge a monthly fee unless you have enough trading volume per month.

No book talks about scalping. It is very specialized. Note that it is the hardest style of trading. Your profit is small for each trade. When prices run away from you fast, you can bleed heavily. You are trying to take the profits from the plate of the professional market makers you know.

Good luck!
 
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I think you should seriously have a think about how much skill & how much luck was involved in your 4K run.

If it was luck, then you could well blow much more than the 4K finding that out.
 
pedro01 said:
I think you should seriously have a think about how much skill & how much luck was involved in your 4K run.

If it was luck, then you could well blow much more than the 4K finding that out.
Click to expand...

good points, good 'footer' on your posts too;)
 
denrou said:
I obviously found my trading style, lol.

It has been a rough year in 08 and the beginning of 09 for me and just when I was ready to quit with the stock market, I started scalping last week and have been up 4k in the past 3 days of trading ... pretty sweet.

I don't know much about this trading style but though I would try it and it works well with my trading personality.

What I am wondering is what I would need to get this working even better for me. I currently have a TD Waterhouse broker account (I am guessing this is the Canadian version of TD Ameritrade) and would like to know what kind of software that would be compatible with my broker account, I am open to anything that would help execute my trades faster and with more EASE. Right now I am wasting too much time clicking back and forth and the broker software I have (Active Trade) is not the best to make those quick 0.01$ profits. I know I could do better.

What is the majority of traders using (software, brokers, techniques, indicator charts, etc...) out there to scalp trade very small amounts (0.01$ - 0.03$)?

Also if anyone has more information in guiding me in the right direction with excellent articles, books, and any other material that would be greatly appreciate.

Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong :)
But why are so many people too lazy(?) to do a bit of research themselves?
It would have saved you a lot of the 25k you lost.
You will find here a lot of good threads and if you put effort and research on top of it, it might make you a decent trader and will make you a lot of money in the longer run.

But ... IMHO ... start reading and studying. Don't be Newbie number 160k who asks the same questions.

Don't take it personal. I just had to write it once :)
Next time, I can copy/paste it to the next thread.:smart:

Good luck!

Cheers Carlos
 
denrou said:
I obviously found my trading style, lol.

It has been a rough year in 08 and the beginning of 09 for me and just when I was ready to quit with the stock market, I started scalping last week and have been up 4k in the past 3 days of trading ... pretty sweet.

I don't know much about this trading style but though I would try it and it works well with my trading personality.

What I am wondering is what I would need to get this working even better for me. I currently have a TD Waterhouse broker account (I am guessing this is the Canadian version of TD Ameritrade) and would like to know what kind of software that would be compatible with my broker account, I am open to anything that would help execute my trades faster and with more EASE. Right now I am wasting too much time clicking back and forth and the broker software I have (Active Trade) is not the best to make those quick 0.01$ profits. I know I could do better.

What is the majority of traders using (software, brokers, techniques, indicator charts, etc...) out there to scalp trade very small amounts (0.01$ - 0.03$)?

Also if anyone has more information in guiding me in the right direction with excellent articles, books, and any other material that would be greatly appreciate.

Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...

hi mate, if can reccommend a platform for professional traders, not generally available to the retail market, it has the best charts, broker grades, and analysis. This platform is used my thousands of institutional traders and therefore unlike cmc and city index etc they dont make money out of you loosing money, they hedge the same trade as the user and make their money from just commission and financing, let me know if your interested and ill get you a demo, i have a couple of ex colleagues who work there and can hopefully give you better rates aswell, hope this helps, Chris
 
cozza007 said:
hi mate, if can reccommend a platform for professional traders, not generally available to the retail market, it has the best charts, broker grades, and analysis. This platform is used my thousands of institutional traders and therefore unlike cmc and city index etc they dont make money out of you loosing money, they hedge the same trade as the user and make their money from just commission and financing, let me know if your interested and ill get you a demo, i have a couple of ex colleagues who work there and can hopefully give you better rates aswell, hope this helps, Chris
Click to expand...

Why are ALL your posts plugging this platform, and why don't you simply state what it is instead of repeatedly enticing people to email you? Perhaps you should have a vendor tag against your name?
 
denrou said:
It has been a rough year in 08 and the beginning of 09 for me and just when I was ready to quit with the stock market, I started scalping last week and have been up 4k in the past 3 days of trading ... pretty sweet.
Click to expand...
Did you really scalped to get your 4k in 3 days? How many trades had you done? It doesn't seem to match with what you described.

You said you only wanted $0.01 - $0.03 profit.

If I assume you get $0.02 profit per trade, and 2000 shares per trade. That's a $40 gain. Minus commission and fees, you may net $25 profit per round trip. You have made >160 round trips in 3 days. Is that right?
 
pedro01 said:
I think you should seriously have a think about how much skill & how much luck was involved in your 4K run.

If it was luck, then you could well blow much more than the 4K finding that out.
Click to expand...

Thanks for you comment.

To tell you the truth I believe I am doing something right.
Even in a down market today, I still managed to add $937 in profits for the day.
My commission fees are huge though. I am averaging approx. $1200 in commission fees for over 180 trades today. Today I did have a bit more losses but still gained close to $2200 ... the commissions is what eat a bit more profits.

For those who asked, I have a td waterhouse direct-access brokerage account and use their active trade software. It works great, but I need more speed and more funtionality :)
 
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Haha .. yah.
Well if I'm in the green then it really doesn't matter in the end I suppose.
 
Way to go denrou! I heard that some traders make half a million dollars a year - after paying 5 millions in commission. You may be heading that way. LOL! Won't matter. A gain is still a gain. Yours is respectable! I thought I am a scalper myself. But perhaps I am totally off. I make about 100 trades a day typically. Nothing compared to where you are going. Best of luck! Post how it works out for you long term.
 
If you can keep results like that going on for a while, then I commend you.

Tell us the following

1 - what instruments are you trading - forex, futures, stocks etc
2 - what kind of spreads is your broker giving you
3 - what kind of orders are you placing ? If market, generally how much slippage are you getting
4 - what commission structure are you paying

If you genuinely have a system that needs this qty of trades, then the above is where you should focus.
 
If you are making that many trades then you should be able to get a discount on your commissions and it is worth asking about in my view.


Paul
 
denrou said:
Thanks for you comment.

To tell you the truth I believe I am doing something right.
Even in a down market today, I still managed to add $937 in profits for the day.
My commission fees are huge though. I am averaging approx. $1200 in commission fees for over 180 trades today. Today I did have a bit more losses but still gained close to $2200 ... the commissions is what eat a bit more profits.

For those who asked, I have a td waterhouse direct-access brokerage account and use their active trade software. It works great, but I need more speed and more funtionality :)
Click to expand...

180 trades?!, thats incredible, do you get time to eat?!, would like to know what your being charged because you should be on?
 
I know some traders who do more than a couple hundred trades a day and they are paying close to what you are in commissions, but it never hurts to check around and see if anyone will give you a discount on your commissions.
also, you should look into a daytrading shop, if you can go to one they will set up a computer and software for you, they have the best connections and it will all be free for you.
plus you will be around other people who are doing the same thing you are doing.
 
denrou said:
I obviously found my trading style, lol.

It has been a rough year in 08 and the beginning of 09 for me and just when I was ready to quit with the stock market, I started scalping last week and have been up 4k in the past 3 days of trading ... pretty sweet.

I don't know much about this trading style but though I would try it and it works well with my trading personality.

What I am wondering is what I would need to get this working even better for me. I currently have a TD Waterhouse broker account (I am guessing this is the Canadian version of TD Ameritrade) and would like to know what kind of software that would be compatible with my broker account, I am open to anything that would help execute my trades faster and with more EASE. Right now I am wasting too much time clicking back and forth and the broker software I have (Active Trade) is not the best to make those quick 0.01$ profits. I know I could do better.

What is the majority of traders using (software, brokers, techniques, indicator charts, etc...) out there to scalp trade very small amounts (0.01$ - 0.03$)?

Also if anyone has more information in guiding me in the right direction with excellent articles, books, and any other material that would be greatly appreciate.

Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...

Ask yourself why you were long in 2008. Did you hold because you thought that the market would recover? If you did, then you were unable to see the signs.

Make sure that you can see the signs when you are trading short term, otherwise the same will happen.

Split
 
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