Scalping?

[yoyomama]

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

I suppose it's more like gambling...but you do have to watch the chart & pick your spots or at least try to. I'm not even sure if I have the correct term for what I'm doing.

I've been buying/selling F throughout the morning....buy at ie: $5.98, sell at $5.99 and thereabouts depending. Granted you have to do a good size amount to account for the 14 dollar Scottrade roundtrip and make a profit but I have 6(make that 7) positive transactions in a row with it. Risk/reward is definitely off the chart but F is not like FUQI where it's going to bounce .50 in the blink of an eye so it feels sort of under control. Although I suppose it would just take once to really wreck your day.

Thoughts?

[Karel]

Yes. This is such a wonderful day, with the indices up over 2%, and you are scalping for a small fraction of a percent? My portfolio, as a whole down quite lot, is really shining with +3.3% overall today.

I am happy, I hope you are happy too.

Regards,

Karel

[yoyomama]

Yes. This is such a wonderful day, with the indices up over 2%, and you are scalping for a small fraction of a percent? My portfolio, as a whole down quite lot, is really shining with +3.3% overall today.

I am happy, I hope you are happy too.

Regards,

Karel

Heh. I've been less happy. I've got a couple of other things working.

[wooish]

FUQI and SNDA are very good scalping stocks due to their high volitility

[yoyomama]

See, that's what I know.

FUQI beat me up really bad one day so I've shied away ever since....will take another look.

[skiracer]

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

I suppose it's more like gambling...but you do have to watch the chart & pick your spots or at least try to. I'm not even sure if I have the correct term for what I'm doing.

I've been buying/selling F throughout the morning....buy at ie: $5.98, sell at $5.99 and thereabouts depending. Granted you have to do a good size amount to account for the 14 dollar Scottrade roundtrip and make a profit but I have 6(make that 7) positive transactions in a row with it. Risk/reward is definitely off the chart but F is not like FUQI where it's going to bounce .50 in the blink of an eye so it feels sort of under control. Although I suppose it would just take once to really wreck your day.

Thoughts?

yo,
i dont know what your numbers are but this is how i see it and i have gambled and booked action on everything imaginable with some of the best at it. if you bought 1000 shares of snda right now at it's selling price of 53.55 that would cost you $53550 plus the commissions. if it went up .10 x 1000 shares you make $100 for your investment of $53550 which equates to about .001867 % or rounded up to .002%. that's not so much risking the entire $53550 because you are never going to lose it all but just putting up that amount of money to make $100 or even $200 doesn't make sense to me. plus you would have to be there to watch your trade because stocks move up and down in the course of a day and even when they end up higher at the close and there is always the chance that some news could prompt them to drop like a rock during the day. so when you figure your time into the equation it doesnt look appealing to me. so where is the edge in doing that. i think you are much better off spending your allotable time in researching and finding suitable setups that will provide a situation where a a well planned strategy of entry, target, and stop will give you the opportunity to invest your money at the best risk vs reward opportunity. anything else is not worth spending your time on. and since time is an unreplenishible commodity you really have to think about how you spend it.

[wooish]

Ski is right, scalping is probably for experienced daytrader with lots of cash and time in front of the screen. Everyone's trading style is different. As for me, my objective is to get a minimum of 10% depending on market condition before I move on to another stock. You need to find a trading style that's you're comfortable with.

[skiracer]

Ski is right, scalping is probably for experienced daytrader with lots of cash and time in front of the screen. Everyone's trading style is different. As for me, my objective is to get a minimum of 10% depending on market condition before I move on to another stock. You need to find a trading style that's you're comfortable with.

precisely wooish, and one that is rewarding and worth the time that you put into it.

[Gary611]

Trading Idea

Here is an interesting strategy, let me know what you think. Pick 10 stocks, employ strict sell discipline at 15% and liquidate any position if it drops 10% from its high made since bought in. That means risk is clearly defined to 1% of the portfolio value if 10 stocks are owned.

[yoyomama]

Hey y'all...trying to find it.

Ski, definitley makes sense...good guess with the cash also only it's not that stock. Yeah, it's labor intensive for sure. I'm not real big on the day trading thing although yeah this is a form of it I suppose. I got my butt kicked big when I first started, pretending I could do it. Found out fast I'm not cut out for it. This just happens to be working today. I do like trying short swings though....a day or two.

[skiracer]

Hey y'all...trying to find it.

Ski, definitley makes sense...good guess with the cash also only it's not that stock. Yeah, it's labor intensive for sure. I'm not real big on the day trading thing although yeah this is a form of it I suppose. I got my butt kicked big when I first started, pretending I could do it. Found out fast I'm not cut out for it. This just happens to be working today. I do like trying short swings though....a day or two.

all i'm saying yo is that make sure the risk vs the reward is worth your time and money. it doesnt make any difference how you do it as long as the risk is worth the reward for the time and money you put into it. people tend to discount their time as non-money. when you are your death bed you just may be thinking about that time that you may have wasted. i'll scalp a situation every now and then but i still apply the same principles to those trades. time and money vs risk vs reward. and always make the edge in your favor

[IIC]

First of all let me tell you...If you think scalping is equivalent to gambling...Forget even trying it.

Gambling has no place in the vocabulary of a scalper.

You are looking for HIGH PERCENTAGE trades...Not high percentage gains but being right a high percentage of the time...I suggest targeting 85%...But you do not need to make money 85% of the time to do well.

First of all I suggest that you are recognized as a Pattern Day Trader (or you have tons of cash in a non-margin account). As a PTD you will have some buying power.

There are several types of scalpers: http://www.investopedia.com/articles...5/scalping.asp

I strongly suggest that you do not try to become the first type.

You will hear many say you cannot make money and may even go broke trying to become a scalper...I have experience doing it and I would say that they are probably right 98% of the time.

Scalping is not investing...For me it lasts 1 to 5 mins usually altho some turn into daytrades which is generally not so good. Even worse is when they turn into swing trades....The toughest part is the emotional part...When you are wrong you are wrong.

I make mistakes...But I find scalping QID and QLD quite profitable...Look at the Misc. Charts page on my site where I recently posted some info on how I do it...It would be better if I could show you in real time tho as I cannot recreate the T&S, market movers etc.

Wish I could explain it better here...But there is a lot involved in making many high percentage trades during the day and ending up green.

But in the end...I NEVER recommend that anyone try to become a scalper unless they already have a lot of day trade experience...Doug

[yoyomama]

First of all let me tell you...If you think scalping is equivalent to gambling...Forget even trying it.

Gambling has no place in the vocabulary of a scalper.

You are looking for HIGH PERCENTAGE trades...Not high percentage gains but being right a high percentage of the time...I suggest targeting 85%...But you do not need to make money 85% of the time to do well.

First of all I suggest that you are recognized as a Pattern Day Trader (or you have tons of cash in a non-margin account). As a PTD you will have some buying power.

There are several types of scalpers: http://www.investopedia.com/articles...5/scalping.asp

I strongly suggest that you do not try to become the first type.

You will hear many say you cannot make money and may even go broke trying to become a scalper...I have experience doing it and I would say that they are probably right 98% of the time.

Scalping is not investing...For me it lasts 1 to 5 mins usually altho some turn into daytrades which is generally not so good. Even worse is when they turn into swing trades....The toughest part is the emotional part...When you are wrong you are wrong.

I make mistakes...But I find scalping QID and QLD quite profitable...Look at the Misc. Charts page on my site where I recently posted some info on how I do it...It would be better if I could show you in real time tho as I cannot recreate the T&S, market movers etc.

Wish I could explain it better here...But there is a lot involved in making many high percentage trades during the day and ending up green.

But in the end...I NEVER recommend that anyone try to become a scalper unless they already have a lot of day trade experience...Doug

I'd say I fit into category 2. Thanks for the links. Yeah it's a margin account.

Yesterday was a good day for most everybody so yeah if I had just kept F all day and sold at closing I'd have done better. That said I had the gap up in the morning from holding it, sold it & had 7 successful scalps & one not so much but all in all it was a good day for me....

but that was yesterday.