tim4

I firmly believe every successful trader has an edge, a technique that he has confidence in. If you have an edge, you'll be able to define a strategy around it. You'll be convinced that this pattern will work, so you develop a system for finding that pattern, setting the right stops, and (the hardest part) knowing when to exit. Patience is key, as one of the repliers mentioned. Wait for your setup. Stay on the simulator until you get to know that those patterns work. It's fun when you know you have an edge.

I have used TS for 10 years, and aside from a few corrupted work files, have had no real problems. Trade mostly commodity futures like metals, grains, interest rates. Fills seem pretty good, but I'm a swing trader so saving the very last tick isn't critical.

Thanks. I'm not familiar with server to server term; what is TS? And is Ninja enough faster to warrant the hassle of switching over? Also, I do like the ability to see the order lines on the charts; I only wish you could trade from the TS charts by moving the lines directly.

Related to the question of best contracts is one about best brokers. I use TradeStation and seem to get decent fills, which is very important when trading ES. But I hear that since they clear through another house (RJ Obrien) that that can slow the process a little. I like their charts and the matrix trading platform. Anyone have any comparisons?

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.

Thanks to you both for good, considered replies. I actually have more success with ES than any other of the eminis. When you're scalping for a few ticks, I've found it's important to be able to buy the bid and sell the ask, which I can do more frequently on ES. If you have more patience than I do, and trade for points instead of just ticks, no doubt you could do quite well with either NQ or YM. I do think that strategies should be tested on a simulator until you get some consistent results. I know to my regret how easy it is to lose real money no matter what is traded if you've got a shaky strategy.

I'm brand new here, but have a question on using YM v. NQ. It would appear that a particular move on YM is maybe double the number of ticks as the same move in NQ. Since you pay 1 tick to get in and 1 to exit, that cuts the profit disproportionately in the NQ, right? Example: a 20-tick scalp on YM may yield a net of 18 ticks, whereas the same corresponding move in NQ would net only 8. So instead of being half the profit, it's actually 44% In addition, the commission of, say 4.60 RT is actually halved on the YM trade, since the profit is only half of the NQ trade. Does this make sense? Or are there are other factors I'm not aware of, like better fills on NQ? Seems like there's more volume on YM, though. I plan to do a lot of this trading, scalping for 5-20 ticks, so I'd appreciate any thougts. Many TX.