Scalping ES , would you say the market moves in 3 , 4 or 5 ticks on average ?

Mrhamster 

Scalping ES , would you say the market moves in 3 , 4 or 5 ticks on average ?

No, find another way!

I watch the ES everyday, it moves 12-16 ticks at times.

blackgrey45 

I watch the ES everyday, it moves 12-16 ticks at times.

At times it does move 12-16 ,

most the time though it seems to move in 3-5 tick bursts .

Mrhamster 

At times it does move 12-16 , most the time though it seems to move in 3-5 tick bursts .

You seem to have already settled on your own conclusion so what is the point of asking the question to then only push back against the answers you get?

If you want to be correct and accurate you need to consider that the ES will always move in 1 tick increments and those bursts you are seeing are probably do to data feed issues like aggregation and/or latency.

As @fwddetent warned, if you try to trade inside your 3-5 tick bursts you will die a painful death.

The average ES swing during regular hours is > $1,000 or 80 Ticks. Why not put your efforts into figuring out how to capture most of those 80 ticks in 2 or 3 trades?

glennts 

You seem to have already settled on your own conclusion so what is the point of asking the question to then only push back against the answers you get? If you want to be correct and accurate you need to consider that the ES will always move in 1 tick increments and those bursts you are seeing are probably do to data feed issues like aggregation and/or latency. As @fwddetent warned, if you try to trade inside your 3-5 tick bursts you will die a painful death. The average ES swing during regular hours is > $1,000 or 80 Ticks. Why not put your efforts into figuring out how to capture most of those 80 ticks in 2 or 3 trades?

die a painful death..........haha , yes that sounds about right .

Why not look at a chart?

In different timeframes, ES moves in different amounts. Asking other people what it does seems odd, when you can look for yourself.

If you think you can exploit 4 tick twitches in price, by the way, you must think you're awfully fast and awfully good. Also, there is the question of why you would bother -- they are so tiny compared to the larger moves the market makes all the time. After commissions, after slippage, after trader mistakes, after trader fatigue and psychological frazzlement from trying to catch microscopic moves that instantly reverse, or that never materialize in the first place, most traders will find this a losing proposition.

Unless you are superbly good, highly experienced at this kind of very short-term scalping, have years of success at it, have some very strong advantage that others do not, and in short have successfully mastered a nearly impossible trading niche, that is.... But then, if you had all that, you wouldn't be asking this question.

I don't mean to discourage you, but I do mean to tell you that that shooting for 4 ticks is a hard, hard, and generally unforgiving task.

Try something else, would be good advice. Going that short-term may work, but the odds are not in your favor.

So start by looking at a chart and seeing what it does, and what looks exploitable to you. Then, of course, find out how to exploit it. That's the hard part....

Good luck. And forget 3 or 4 ticks.

Bob.

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Edit: Actually, it is possible to make money scalping short-term moves. But the shorter and smaller the move, the harder it gets. So, it may be right for you, but you should know that it seldom is, that's all.

glennts 

The average ES swing during regular hours is > $1,000 or 80 Ticks. Why not put your efforts into figuring out how to capture most of those 80 ticks in 2 or 3 trades?

Agreed. However, the big problem is: How many swings per day does it take to get those 80 ticks ?
It's easy if there are less than 10 major swings per day.
But when the market is choppy, there could be 20, 30 swings per day.....which would kill trend-following systems.
Ya gotta know when to go with the momentum and when to fade it.