I look at the level 2 boxes, trying to judge the sentiment on the bid and ask based on quantity of shares, number of market makers, and which market makers are buying or selling.
I use futures as a motivator, sometimes as a signal to get out. Futures are more useful in slow trading days. On a good day, with high volume, a monkey could tell the market was going up (i.e. he/she wouldn't need futures).
I then have a series of "rackets" that I use for longer day trading. Racket for trading on the open (often based on news, volume, etc.), racket for trading after the program trades, and racket for close. There are also miscellaneous tricks when stocks hit day hi/lo prices.
On slow days, I lose money scalping, gain money on rackets. On fast days, I gain on both, sometimes not having any time for rackets. Very rarely, I lose on both, usually due to lack of concentration or bad fundamental assumptions -- i.e. trying to go against the trend. |
