Forex Scalping – Trading For a Living the Facts

October 26, 2009 by  
Filed under Forex Scalping

Forex scalpers rely on trading regularly they don’t aim for big profits they aim for consistent small gains that mount up over time and aim for large annual profits with this method of trading. Forex scalping is popular so read on for the facts.

Firstly lets make it clear now it doesn’t work never has and never will.

Don’t believe me? Then read on and I will give you ALL the facts.

Fact: Short Term Volatility is Random

You have millions of traders who trade trillions of dollars and to say you can measure what is going to happen in a few hours is ridiculous. You cannot predict what this diverse mass of people are going to do and it’s never been possible.

All short term volatility is random and prices can and do go anywhere in short periods – support and resistance levels are meaningless. You can’t get the odds in your favor and you will lose – period

Fact: Vendors claim it makes money but have no evidence

The fact is they make money selling courses – they win you lose. They have the sense not to trade themselves and normally put out a hypothetical track record – which is exactly what it implies its hypothetical, done in hindsight, knowing the closing prices – Well, that’s hard.

You and I can both do that but in the real world you don’t have the luxury of knowing the price!

You would think that someone would have the guts to trade it for real but no, these guys know it’s a good story and don’t risk cash in the market and if they cant make money for real with it, why should you trust it?

Fact: It Breaks a Fundamental Rule of Trading

Which is, “run your profits and cut your losses” of course forex scalpers keep their profits small ( and they have a lot of them) but they can’t even get lucky and catch and run a big profit!

Forex scalpers only want a few pips and don’t run profits this is ridiculous.

So you have lots of small losses and when a scalper is lucky enough to get a profit ( and forex scalpers get lucky now and again) it gets closed out quickly.

Well that is simply a recipe to wipe out equity lots of small losses an profits that cant cover them – it’s not the market that gets scalped it’s the trader.

The myth that forex scalpers and day traders make money is put about by brokers who make a lot of money from day traders and others who see a good story and a marketing opportunity but that’s all it is a good story – with no basis in fact.

Naive and greedy traders swallow the story trade lose and wonder why!

If they had done their homework, they would see that trading is an odds game and trying to scalp the market is doomed to failure and really, you would do just as well tossing a coin.

Forex Scalping 1M and 5M

October 26, 2009 by  
Filed under Forex Scalping

Trading Forex Using 1 Minute and 5 Minute Charts

This article examines whether or not you can make long-term profits trading short-term charts such as the 1 and 5 minute charts for forex market trading.
Many forex traders attempt to trade using the very short term 1 minute and 5 minute charts, but most of these traders will inevitably end up losing money. So why is this, and why is short-term trading so difficult to make consistent profits from?

Well forex trading overall is quite difficult, but I’ve personally always found short-term trading using 1 minute and 5 minute charts to be even more difficult. The trouble you have is that you can have the best system in place that will find a perfect high probability trade for you, but then the pair may only move 5-10 points in your favour at most before reversing again.

So you can make a winning call a lot of the time, but because you’re trading over such a short time frame, the movements will often be very small. You also have the spread to contend with because with a spread of 3 or 4 points on a lot of pairs, you need a decent sized move just to break even, let alone make a profit. Plus there’s also the fact that a lot of forex brokers do not like scalpers and will often ban traders who do this.

If, however, you use a longer time frame you could use the very same system to trade the 1 hour or 4 hour charts, for example, to make a lot more points profit because the moves would be a lot bigger.

It’s also of course a lot less stressful trading the longer time frames because you have more time to analyze the markets and plan your entries and exits. If you’re trading lots of intraday positions it can be very stressful because you have very little time to think and react to situations. You also have instances of requotes and broker downtime which can destroy an intraday position, whereas these things won’t have as big an impact if you are trading the longer term charts.

Of course there are traders who make money from very short-term trading, but they are few and far between. The majority will eventually be wiped out not matter how effective a particular trading system may initially appear.

In my opinion you’re better off looking at 1 hour charts at the very least because the longer time frame you use for your charts, the more reliable your chosen technical indicators will prove to be in general. You can still be a profitable day trader trading several times a day using 1 hour and 4 hour charts, and the moves will generally be a lot bigger as well, so there really is little point, in my opinion, in basing your main forex trading strategy on the 1 minute and 5 minute charts.

How to Scalp the Forex Market

October 26, 2009 by  
Filed under Forex Scalping

Scalping for small profits is one of the most popular strategies in Forex trading. Scalpers rely on trading regularly and taking consistent small profits. They usually liquidate their trades on the same day. However, the problem with this strategy is that it has the tendency to turn you into a compulsive gambler (especially for beginners). Why did I say that? There are various reasons for leading a new scalper into a compulsive gambler. When a trader turns into a compulsive gambler, he/she will be doom for failure. In this article we will take a quick look at the 2 common reasons for that and discuss on tips to scalp efficiently;

1. Addiction to Random Profits

Most newbie thought that they can make some quick profits by taking small profits in the Forex arena everyday. They enjoy the random rewards from the market, which may turn into an addiction. It is just like teaching your dog to perform a task and randomly rewarding it every time a task is done. In this way, there is no way your dog can know when it will be rewarded. As a result, there is no reason for your dog to quit doing the task, even without being rewarded for doing it.

2. Trading for Revenge

There is a common saying among scalpers; “Trade for today, not yesterday”. Many newbie try to recoup their money back after their losses a few hours ago. They cannot swallow a loss or losses and became mesmerized with their fond memories of their past winnings. They keep thinking on how to win back their money, which tends to cloud their judgment on the market. They begin to fantasize opportunities in the market to enter a trade. This will eventually lead to their emotional attempt at revenge that is doomed to failure.

Tips to Scalp Efficiently

1. Determine the direction of the day by first looking at the daily chart.

2. Using candlestick studies, trendline or pivot points to enter a trade in the hourly chart.

3. For the above it must be use together with support and resistance.

4. Trading on continuous trend has a higher probability of success.

5. For contrarian trading, always enter at a better filled price or average your lot size to enter the trade

6. Scrape your trade if you do not feel comfortable after the point of entry or it takes too long for the trade to go in your direction.

7. Stop trading for the day if you have 3 losses in a row


Hi
Let me give you some history about myself.. I am a 33 year old Singaporean (as of 2009), who started my trading journey since 2004. Now, I focus mainly in Stock Options, Forex and other Investments. I have started Online Trading FX – a site about trading psychology, Forex trading, investments and other topics that interests me from time to time. I hope to educate and contribute my humble experience and thoughts to everyone out there.