Learn to Day Trade in the Scalping Style
My normal day trade doesn’t last more than 15 minutes , and by then I have typically closed out my trade , hopefully with a profit. My style of day trading is a form of scalping . It is not the the traditional method of trading, but is one of the most profitable . Why? I don’t hold any trades overnight, and when I go to sleep all my money is in cash. I rest pretty well.
Market prognostication is a fuzzy profession , to say the least . You need only review the record of economists, mutual fund managers, and hedge fund managers to realize that long-runmarket forecating of the market is not particularly on the money . There are various arguments for this, the most paramount being the number of factors discounted into a stock or index price. Of course, some arguments can be understood ; like economic trends, cyclical developments, but there is a immense number of spurious variables that go into asset pricing. Uncontrollable variables like tornados , wars, and a host of abnormal economic occurrences . The point I am making is a simple one; fund managers have a miserable track record when it comes to intermediate and long-range market prediction.
That being said, I trade only in ultra-short time periods.
Short-term market prediction is a bit easier , especially when using some specialized oscillators, moving averages, and price action, and rate of change indicators. It is far easier to look ahead five minutes than it is five months. I also suppose that there is a level of randomness in the market which makes long-term prediction even more tedious . The market is a volatile creature .
That’s why I am a scalper.
My mission is to carve out modest gains in short-term trends and close out the trade with a profit. Normally , I will try to day trade opposite the trend, nor do I try to pick out market tops or bottoms . Further, I calibrate my indicators to ascertain when the market is engaged in normal backing and filling operations, commonly called as market noise. Some individuals day trade market noise successfully , I don’t. I am mainly interested in market breakouts in breakdowns.
I seek to minimize risk.
By opting to day trade exclusively in singular short-term trends, and containing my losses through well considered tight stop loss control I am able to minimize drawdowns and any account busting trades. I am not opposed to allowing a trade run on the profit side , but decline to adjust my stop loss down under any conditions . I never add contracts to a losing trade either. Once I’m in a winningday trade and up two points (assuming I am trading the ES contract), I will move my stop loss up to a two tick gain and allow the day trade to run. I will not let a winning trade become a losing trade.
Another stress reducing benefit of scalping is lack of psychological l involvement in my trading. I never try to predict what the market is going to do, I simply react to it is doing. So I am never in the position of predicting market moves, I simply seek to book what the market offers.
As you can see, risk management is a goal of mine. I use strict money management techniques and then never risk more than 5-7% of my futures account balance on a single day trade. I am into trading for the long run, which is nearly 25 years now,