Scalping stocks

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Pyraeus

I trade somewhat conservative stocks that i can daytrade or hold without too much worry.I usually exit after a few up days because i always expect a hammering after that.
However,now,i am mostly scalping 500-1000 shares for 10-25 cent movements.Its a lot of work for small gains.Unless the stock has had a nice pullback i dont want to hold overnight at these record market highs-even though i think the market is going higher.
 
One thing to keep in mind is that a lot of small gains compounded over several hundred trades can add up to a lot of money. This is assuming your strategy has a positive expectancy and your commissions don't eat up too much of your profit.
For example, if you can make 0.3% on each trade and roll your profits into each subsequent trade, after 100 trades you will have made about 35% on your initial investment. If you can automate a strategy like this it would definitely be worth it.
 
GaryBtrader said:
One thing to keep in mind is that a lot of small gains compounded over several hundred trades can add up to a lot of money. This is assuming your strategy has a positive expectancy and your commissions don't eat up too much of your profit.
For example, if you can make 0.3% on each trade and roll your profits into each subsequent trade, after 100 trades you will have made about 35% on your initial investment. If you can automate a strategy like this it would definitely be worth it.
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I have free trading otherwise i wouldnt scalp for such small amounts.
 
Pyraeus said:
I trade somewhat conservative stocks that i can daytrade or hold without too much worry.I usually exit after a few up days because i always expect a hammering after that.
However,now,i am mostly scalping 500-1000 shares for 10-25 cent movements.Its a lot of work for small gains.Unless the stock has had a nice pullback i dont want to hold overnight at these record market highs-even though i think the market is going higher.
More...

A lot of trades with a positive expectancy is the best if you aim for returns consistency.

But I can see how it can be tiring if you're doing all of that manually in front of the screen whole day. Maybe try to automate parts of it? Starting something like only exit, or some entries.

My own trades expectancy is a fraction of 1% and so I just automated everything.
 
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