Anyone scalping the FTSE Futures??

[romski]

Why would you use a spread bet company for scalping !

Why not use a real broker like Interactive brokers dot co. uk ?

im not sure i really dont know how it works that much im new and I teach myself everything so I will prob ask some basics queastions and annoy you , i thought spread betting was what you guys used. Clearly i am wrong

so i assume these brokers charge less over the long term period or are more accurate reliable ?

 

[ordinaryguy76]

with scalping, who do you use ? are there any brokers etc with really tight spreads the best seems to be CMC which charge 0.9 or 0.7

If you are new to this and vary of risking your money, my advice would be to go for cashback offers (and no, I don't work for these guys and I'm not affiliated):

worldspreads - open active account (£500) and get up to £300 back if you lose that within first 8 weeks. They will also offer you 0 point spreads for 30 days.

etxcapital - £250 back if you lose within 2 weeks. You can open with £250. 1 point spreads.

spreadco - £200 back if you lose within 2 weeks.

marketspreads.ie - £350 back (not sure about details there).

Some of these have "refer a friend" bonuses and I could refer you if you wish.

Be aware that with such small accounts it's really 95% gambling, 5% trading, though...

 

[Splitlink]

im not sure i really dont know how it works that much im new and I teach myself everything so I will prob ask some basics queastions and annoy you , i thought spread betting was what you guys used. Clearly i am wrong

so i assume these brokers charge less over the long term period or are more accurate reliable ?

There is a difference between scalping and short term trading. Be aware of the fact that rhe profit margin on scalping is so tight that the spread is of prime importance. Spreadbetting firms are not suitable for scalping, although I use one for short term trading with no problems that are not my fault ie. bad trades.

 

[DaddyJohn]

just out of curiosity how many points can one scalp a month

I take about 1000 to 1500 a month.... That usually takes on average 30 trades a day

 

[DaddyJohn]

is this for real DJ? £2,000 per month before you even start?

Yes sir

 

[mazdaq100]

I take about 1000 to 1500 a month.... That usually takes on average 30 trades a day

Wow, that's pretty impressive DJ. If you don't mind me asking, how many points do you win on average per trade? What's your win/loss ratio?

 

[lurkalot]

Wow, that's pretty impressive DJ. If you don't mind me asking, how many points do you win on average per trade? What's your win/loss ratio?

If you say 20 days a month this gives you 600 trades.

2.5 points per trade if he never loses.

If he does lose how big does he let his losing trades get?

 

[Dick Lexic]

Computer - £50 ebay
Monitors - £90 ebay
Graphics card - £4 ebay

Spread bet co. x2
Bog standard charts x2

Broadband including landline £16 mth

Pathetic init

 

[MartinC-J]

Hi Daddyjohn
I trade through IB and transact futures I did use e-signal around 2004/05 but as my trading went more to a swing trader I stopped as I was paying $1000s each month for exchange fees this fee that fee etc

If I was in and out of the market like yourself and martin then a trading desk would be the only option internet connections have become more reliable but power companies have become unreliable.

DC - If you are trading just a few times a day, assuming the scalping bug has not got you, why wouldn't you use Prospreads to trade. It works out a little bit more expensive per contract to trade, but the profits are tax free.

Out of interest, what are you paying per round trip per contract to trade the FTSE with IB? I am paying roughly £1.80 with Open ECry. That is from $1 per side for commissions and 56p for clearing. The platform and data feed costs are free, which is important as I have access to the FTSE as well as FESX, ES, YM, 6B, 6E, and pretty much any futures contract I want to chart. One thing I would like is access to $TICK and time and sales data which OEC don't offer.

 

[MartinC-J]

If you are new to this and vary of risking your money, my advice would be to go for cashback offers (and no, I don't work for these guys and I'm not affiliated):

worldspreads - open active account (£500) and get up to £300 back if you lose that within first 8 weeks. They will also offer you 0 point spreads for 30 days.

etxcapital - £250 back if you lose within 2 weeks. You can open with £250. 1 point spreads.

spreadco - £200 back if you lose within 2 weeks.

marketspreads.ie - £350 back (not sure about details there).

Some of these have "refer a friend" bonuses and I could refer you if you wish.

Be aware that with such small accounts it's really 95% gambling, 5% trading, though...

I checked out the WorldSPreads platform as the zero spreads are attractive along with the tax free profits. But it is impossible to trade for a scalper. They don't let you move limit and stop orders around as you wish. On many occasions they won't let you move your limit to less than 5 pt away from the price, so you have to hit market to get out. I found the platform clumsy to use, so I have avoided them and stuck with Open ECry and paying some tax.

 

[DaddyJohn]

Wow, that's pretty impressive DJ. If you don't mind me asking, how many points do you win on average per trade? What's your win/loss ratio?

Lurkalot has a point, in that this style of trading is hard. I sometimes wonder why I do it myself... However, to answer you question, I try and target 60 to 80 prices a day on the ftse futures. I don't trade anything else because you have to understand your Market very, very well and in particular how the algo's work. I have never measured my win,lose ratio. I work on the basis purely of risk to reward, sometimes that might be 2 price risk, 4 price reward, it also might be 10 price risk , 40 price reward. I know how much I am prepared to risk per trade and therefore I adjust my lot sizes to suit the risk calculation.

Hope this helps.

 

[ordinaryguy76]

I checked out the WorldSPreads platform as the zero spreads are attractive along with the tax free profits. But it is impossible to trade for a scalper. They don't let you move limit and stop orders around as you wish. On many occasions they won't let you move your limit to less than 5 pt away from the price, so you have to hit market to get out.

This is true, I can't say I like them. They are ok, but nothing more.
Still, as I am a newbee and expecting to lose some money sooner or later, cashback was the most important bit for me.

 

[lurkalot]

DJ I admire your discipline if you can stick to it. If I didn't break my own rules I would be a more profitable trader!

I should set my trades and walk away, but I can't do that either!

 

[MartinC-J]

Many thanks DC , do you still see an inverted V ? Also wanted to ask you and Martin what execution / order entry systems you use? I also am assuming you guys work from home. I trade out of Futex in Woking, I am self funded and just rent the desk. I use e-signal, and Stellar for execution. But the costs are like £1000 per month for the licences and the desk is another £750. So, with petrol etc... I am looking at nearly£2000 a month costs. I cover this quite easily, but wondered if I was missing a trick here. I tried trading from home but the Internet was too unreliable where I live. As you know I am a scalper, so need quick in and out and tight spreads.... Any thought?

DJ - I considered looking at Futex a while back, but for now am happy trading from home in Farnham. The internet isn't always that reliable, and annoyingly likes to reset for 30 seconds between 8am and 9am every day. I've complained to AOL who have even sent an engineer out to the house, but they still cannot explain the reset or who is doing it.

How do you like Futex? There are other traders there who must be some help, and don't they give you training too? They also apparently let you trade using their money, or have I got that wrong?

 

[MartinC-J]

DJ I admire your discipline if you can stick to it. If I didn't break my own rules I would be a more profitable trader!

I should set my trades and walk away, but I can't do that either!

You make a good point about breaking rules. We all do it, but as we get better, we do it less and less. And you get more comfortable about your rules and more picky with your trades as time goes on. The other thing to understand is that your rules don't work all the time, but don't get rid of your rules just because they get broken a couple of times.

 

[orangetrader]

Orange - I found Al Brooks's book so full of detail it is very hard to put it all into context. I hope that they republish it with much bigger charts, and maybe less content. It was a seriuos brain dump, but a really great piece of work.

MartinC
I have learnt quite a bit, particularly in terms of using trendline breaks, channels, wedges to get a better perspective on things.

I also like his simple style. I couldn't bring myself to rely on 5 min charts only but I have stopped over-using TICK/TRIN, 1 min charts, indices, news - anything else which takes my concentration away from price movement.

I agree with your other point about shorter term charts for the open followed by a slightly longer term one. I am working on improving my post-open trading.

In fact the Al Brooks book arrived at a very good time for me. I recently spent a couple of crazy days trading all day off the 1 min charts, revenge trades the lot and it cost me an arm and a leg. I am hoping that the experience was a lesson rather than an indication of what my trading style will be going forward. Anyway as a consequence I have stopped the 1 min approach trading too many patterns and I am in recovery for my revenge trading.

DJ that's a big outlay per month. I personally think that you are doing well to make a profit and if it work's ..... I guess being surrounded by other traders has it's advantages.

I use IB and pay 93p per contract per trade for a FTSE futures trade. I also rent an office which costs me about £400 per month all-in + some small data costs but that's by far the biggest expense

 

[mazdaq100]

Lurkalot has a point, in that this style of trading is hard. I sometimes wonder why I do it myself... However, to answer you question, I try and target 60 to 80 prices a day on the ftse futures. I don't trade anything else because you have to understand your Market very, very well and in particular how the algo's work. I have never measured my win,lose ratio. I work on the basis purely of risk to reward, sometimes that might be 2 price risk, 4 price reward, it also might be 10 price risk , 40 price reward. I know how much I am prepared to risk per trade and therefore I adjust my lot sizes to suit the risk calculation.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for that DJ. Totally agree about focusing on just one market. Since I started focusing on just the FTSE a few months ago, my trading has improved no end. I still have a long way to go though before I achieve anything like the results you, Martin C-J and some of the others on here are getting. It's good to hear how many points others are achieving as it spurs me on to get better at my trading.

Biggest problem I seem to have at the moment is believing in the trade and actually placing the trade - too often I hesitate and then the opportunity is gone!

 

[dc2000]

someone needs to get a stomp on this FTSE the 148 is still shouting I dont mind it comming monday morning but would prefer today

I pay 1.85 per trip which I think is good I dont scalp like you guys typically I will have a position trade running for a couple of weeks average, an intraweek running for 2 or 3 days and up to 3 trades intraday
I look for about 500 on positional 350 on weekly positions and 120 intraday these are on DOW trades on the FTSE 2 lots of 50 intraday is the norm at the moment not every day mind

Ive never tried worldspreads I take it thats a SB company
The way I choose brokers was get all the phone numbers on a high volatility day NFP etc just after the key large move ring all the brokers and time how fast you get through to the dealing room

 

[DaddyJohn]

DJ - I considered looking at Futex a while back, but for now am happy trading from home in Farnham. The internet isn't always that reliable, and annoyingly likes to reset for 30 seconds between 8am and 9am every day. I've complained to AOL who have even sent an engineer out to the house, but they still cannot explain the reset or who is doing it.

How do you like Futex? There are other traders there who must be some help, and don't they give you training too? They also apparently let you trade using their money, or have I got that wrong?

I do like the guys here, it is good been around other traders, there are some really big swingers here and if you can get a sense of what they are doing, it can give you an edge. They do have a training programme, but it is expensive at £7000. They recruit graduates who don't have to pay the course fees and they train them. I think the success rate is maybe less than 20 pc though in terms of those that go on to trade using the company money and are successful. It is a good environment though, very professional.

 

[lurkalot]

HI
Have a look at "Hedgetrimmer Trading" chat room on PalTalk, under Business & Finance. They follow the FTSE Futures with scalping & position commentry...really good ideas.

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