Traded just over 70 r/t's today... but it was a very good day. I traded 1 and 2 lots after having a dismal week last week with 2 losing days and 3 winning.
I actually don't get 70 signals, but once I get into a trade, I take partials and rebuy lower, playing off the range and stuff, so it adds up, but my basis never moves, so it either keeps adding profit, or I stop out and wait for another signal to trade off of.
Today was really good before lunch, had about 35 r/t winners and 3 losers. After lunch I got whipped twice, and once my internet went out and only my emergency stop saved me! market moved fast, I was only out for maybe 2 min. By the close tho, I faired much better.
I know a lot of people don't like to scalp, but a scalper can take points not just ticks... by using a trailing stop... also, a scalper enters with low risk. I usually enter thinking I'm going to get 2 points and then trail the rest, but it doesn't always work out that way..
You can also learn much faster by scalping.
In the end tho, it only matters if your green. And this only depends on 2 things: win loss ratio and risk reward ratio. Other factors like trailing stops, and getting spooked and exiting before it hits target or stop will affect it as well.
I try to use a 1 to 5 risk reward ratio for first target, then trail the rest... sometimes it doesn't work out like that, but my high win loss ratio does the trick.
Anyway, don't be a sucker and try to learn by using 3 point stops... scalping is the fastest way to trade and thus the fastest way to learn... after a whole day of scalping, you have enough data to evaluate, change, adapt, etc... It can take months if you look for 1 or 2 trades a day to get the same data for evaluation...
But of course, if evaluation, change, study, and adaptation do not happen, the scalper will lose more in the same period due to commissions. However, as a learning tool, it is the best. It can accelerate your trading abilities.
It's the opposite of surfing. In surfing, you start with a big fat ass longboard, and then graduate to smaller boards...
in trading (aside from l2 or innefficiency arb), where you are reading price action and using technical analysis, the intraday chart is your best friend....
if you are afraid to embrace taking 1-3 ES points with a 2-3 tick stop, don't be. Just be willing to put in the work. You have to put it in anyway.
If you put in the hard work, you can be an expert in technical analysis and price action in 3 months. The only reason people fail to do this, and I have fallen in this category b4, is that they fail to put in the hard work, or they don't have enough data (they are not scalping)
Sometimes, you can get by for months or years, being net positive, but not hugely, and not fully understanding why. I have done this... this comes from doing some work and developing an edge but it is not sharp, you don't fully understand it... then gradually, it dulls, and u just start losing.... this happens when u don't put in the work.