What is scalping?

eves_banished_children said:
So that's your argument .. you can't walk away from an automation, but it's probably okay to walk away from a position.
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Yep, we are in the world to live.
Walking away from a position is what I always do, have numerous positions on while in the city drinking, eating, sleeping, travelling...
 
eves_banished_children said:
I absolutely agree with this.

It starts with an analysis of what the market actually IS. At its lowest level, above the hardware, communications lines, etc, it is simply people (and algo's) deciding to bid or ask at a price and volume, and above that a matching of those bid/asks by the exchange to result in a trade. SO MANY people try to read more into it than that ... it starts with assuming that trades have to move up and down in some kind of orderly way, that they have to take small steps, can't gap, etc ... and it ends in complete delusions like thinking that the money you spent to get into the market is "there", meaning that it is sitting in some account somewhere waiting for your to decide to withdraw it, when in reality you are holding stock and someone else has long since walked off with your money. Except that someone is willing to bid for your stock right this moment, there's no assurance you'll ever get a dime back from it.

The only thing close to a "sure thing" is small time frames that are doing the same perceptible repeating patterns so many times that it's a statistically likely event that B is going to follow A and you're going to make money. It's the difference between trying to (1) figure out by watching a person where they're going to go this afternoon based on nothing but where they are at, and (2) trying to figure out whether their right foot is going to hit the ground when they've been walking forward, are standing on the left foot, their right foot is in the air, they are leaning forward at 10% degrees beyond perpendicular, and if they don't put their right food down gravity is going to cause them to face plant on the concrete. I have no idea where they are going to walk to, if they want to get a haircut, if they intend to get some pizza or a coffee, or if they are part of a Mars mission and are about to get suited up to enter a spaceship ... but with statistics, careful observation, testing, etc, I believe we can figure out whether their right foot is going to hit the ground or not with a good amount of certainty. Those are the bets I like.
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Excellent!:thumbsup::fistbump:
 
Well getting back on track, OP (after 24 years of attempting trading) is asking a very basic question regarding scalping.
Scalping is being a hamster locked in a cage running in circles spinning a slot machine wheel.
Time (rate per hr) being inproportional to dollars earned.
 
themickey said:
Yep, we are in the world to live.
Walking away from a position is what I always do, have numerous positions on while in the city drinking, eating, sleeping, travelling...
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Yeah but thou beest an investor whilst others are traders. Nevetheless, i can place a trade with bracket orders for SL and PT and i can mosey to DQ for an ice cream cone as I await for the ATM trading machine to spit me out a profit OR a loss. But since I focus on High win rate trades, a very neccesary metric in my w.v. (to the chagrin of others), guess what I most likely will have when I get back? Thats right!
 
themickey said:
Well getting back on track, OP (after 24 years of attempting trading) is asking a very basic question regarding scalping.
Scalping is being a hamster locked in a cage running in circles spinning a slot machine wheel.
Time (rate per hr) being inproportional to dollars earned.
More...
Slot machine ONLY if thou knowest not what thou doest. Money generator if thou doest know! Many spins of the cage much moola. And very fast..no waiting weeks and months.
 
CSEtrader said:
For me scalping is most profitable and less risky way - by following market from smallest timeframes you are tunned and can feel breath and everystep. To stay more with the flow is coming with experience, like catching big waves on serf.
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Actually, in all the trading that I do, scalping and day trading has by far the greatest risk and percentage wise, biggest percentage returns, I do use distant options that are kept on in case of Black Swan, and just a matter of time of another 911, people always say History doesn't repeat, but it does in forms of other people, whether it is religion or acquiring land, people just don't get along. Of all the trading I do, it is the extremes of long term commodities and finding the tops/bottoms, which often takes a dozen and more times, but hedging saves me from most of the losses, but one of last feelings I did well and happy to get them.

eves_banished_children said:
Me too.

You think scalpers don't hold positions ?
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Absolutely, long term trading has the most wealthy people in this group, I prefer to do long term than scalping/day trading any day of the week. But unless you know how to dance options around your stocks/commodities to generate enough to cover ongoing losses due to price cycles coming too early/late to hedge open profits on stocks/commodities when there are retracements of the ongoing trend, very difficult to make anything on a monthly basis. My commodity long term system has profitable trades 7-15% on average every year and I am more than alright with this cause of the hedges. But the add-ons have more of a 50/50% and they hedged as well. Stocks, all is hedged and ave 40% profitable trades. Some years battling to stay above zero percent is the norm, so like 1 in 3 years of normal patterns long term have big years and other 2 much less. At least for how I trade. ​
 
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