Technology and the internet come together to make trading easily accessible and convenient enough for everyone. Traders are widely getting exposure to various trading strategies because of the internet. The idea to invest in various asset classes to diversify the investment portfolio is quite popular among traders. There are several strategies to cash out from investing in multiple instruments. One of them is scalping.
In terms of scalping, seasoned traders suggest Brokereo as the best broker as it offers day trading at minimum costs, including tax. In addition, it is a reputed broker known for providing the best trading conditions to its clients.
Scalping is attracting a new age of traders because of several reasons. Most traders use scalping strategy to generate regular income by trading.
What is Scalping?
Scalping refers to the trading style in which traders are focused to gain on the small price change of an asset. Traders who conduct such a strategy are called scalpers. Scalpers usually place multiple trades in a day to maximise their chances of profit. For example, one can make a fast profit by reselling the asset in minimum time.
This strategy can be applied in various markets such as stocks, cryptocurrencies, Forex, commodities and more. Scalpers believe that small changes in price are quite easy to identify rather than the larger ones. Thus, a large number of profits can add up to make a massive gain. But it can only be done by applying the simple strategy of exit the position at the right time. There are several exit strategies to mitigate losses one can execute.
Scalping involves strict trading conditions in terms of both timeframe and price movements. Therefore, the use of technical indicators is essential to make a profit through scalping strategy.
How Does Scalping Strategy Work?
Scalping, meaning trading with proper implementation of an exit strategy, is essential in scalping because one large loss could shadow all small gains. The idea here is not to gain the most from each trade but to make the most out of the large volume of trades. To successfully implement this strategy, one should know how to execute technical analysis, candlestick charts and other technical indicators. Scalping is implemented intraday.
It is assumed that the shares complete the first stage of the price movement in scalping stocks. But after this, the journey is quite uncertain. You do not know where it will go after the completion of the first stage. The scalping is hard enough to maintain your constant gains throughout your trading journey. Moreover, it involves higher risks because one significant loss can swipe your several considerable gains.
But scalpers believe that relying on small price movement is less risky than depending on the large price shift. This is because scalping involves trading in quick succession throughout the trading day, and scalp traders usually wait for the right time to emerge the sweet trading opportunity to make a large profit.
Scalpers put a huge emphasis on technical analysis while implementing this strategy. Of course, fundamental analysis is also crucial for traders to enter into the game of scalping. But they heavily rely on technical analysis because of the involvement of candlestick charts, moving averages and more.
Scalping Strategy
- First, market analysis is a must if you are looking for higher returns through this trading style. A thorough market analysis is required that can be technical analysis or fundamental analysis. Scalpers use charts and trend signals to identify the trading events and carefully watch the potential entry and exit points.
Once they know the patterns, they use them to predict what the price would be in the next minute or where it will move.
- One must go through the process of analysing charts and past price movements to get a rough idea about the price direction and trade accordingly. The main thing is the discipline in scalping. A scalp trader should be emotionally stable and take decisions by reflecting on them. It needs enough patience to find that big opportunity to cash out across the trading day.
- The trading journey of a scalper gets exciting enough when s/he pays attention to every detail of price movements. But, at the same time, scalpers must also be flexible because of the market’s liquidity.
- Other strategies are highly technical and require enough knowledge and decent trading experience. For example, seasoned traders use these technical indicators for larger volumes of trade. But scalping is more prevalent among beginners and intermediate traders as one can easily participate in the market with less capital.
One can build analytical prowess by applying the scalping strategies mentioned below.
1.Stochastic Oscillator strategy
Stochastic oscillator strategy is used to compare the tentative range of asset price with the current price. The stochastic oscillator is also known as a momentum oscillator. Scalpers can quickly identify the moves in market trends with the help momentum oscillator. It gives you a value between zero to hundred.
2.RSI strategy
RSI means Relative Strength Index. It is also a form of oscillator. Therefore, scalpers can depend on it to analyse the suitable entry and exit points and market patterns. The best thing about RSI is that it offers multiple timeframes.
When the value shown by RSI is close to 30 and still increasing, it means that you have to open a long position. If the value is around 70 and then falls, it is a clear indication to short your position. This scalping strategy is used often in the bear market too.
3.Moving average scalping strategy
Moving averages are one of the essential indicators for scalpers. There are basically two types of moving averages. One is a short-term moving average, and the other one is a long-term moving average. Scalpers typically use one long term moving average and two short term-term moving averages.
4.Parabolic SAR indicator strategy
SAR means Stop and Reversal. One can easily predict the entry and exit points using Parabolic SAR. This indicator offers the direction of the market trends in a subtle manner. Stop and reversal signify the dots placed against the price bars. When the asset price rises, the dots also tend to move upwards.
If you see dots below the price bars, it is the indication to open a long position. It clearly means that the market is currently bullish.
Day Trading vs Scalping
Day trading and scalping seem quite similar to each other. But they are very different trading styles. Scalping is a part of day trading, but all forms of day trading are not scalping. In day trading, one doesn’t need to use the scalping strategy. The major difference between intraday and scalping is the time difference of holding the position.
In intraday, traders can hold positions as long as the market is open on a particular trading day. But scalpers often hold positions only for seconds to cash out on the high variation in asset’s prices. Day traders usually apply systemic and discretionary trading strategies. On the other hand, scalpers use automated systematic trading scalping strategy. The time frame of scalpers is generally measured in seconds.
Traders identify entry positions in the market for a larger profit in day trading, but in scalping, they enter the market intending to make a large number of small gains.
There are many positions that last only for seconds or minutes in scalping. It is one of the shortest term trading styles. One has to be very clear with the goals of making a profit in scalping. Once the predefined profit or loss has been touched, you have to close your position. There is no place for greed in scalping, unlike other trading strategies. Traders require high discipline as they want to adapt scalping.
Pros and Cons of Scalping
Pros
- Scalping methods were created to reduce the danger of a single firm losing money by using tight leverage and stop-loss settings. As a result, there is virtually minimal danger in the market.
- One of the main advantages of scalping is that it may be highly successful if a trader can apply a conscientious exit plan. Scalpers can profit from small swings in a stock’s price, which may or may not represent the general trend of the commodity’s price throughout the day. Scalpers also don’t need to follow basic principles because they aren’t necessary when working for such a short duration. As a result, traders don’t need to know as much about the stock as they once did.
- Scaling is a non-directional approach that does not require the market to move in a specific direction. As a result, you may profit from both the high and low markets.
- Another substantial benefit of this technique is that it involves minimal market risk. Its goal is to keep losses from a single stock to a minimum by using tight leverage and stop-loss settings. Scalping is also a non-directional technique, which means it may be used while markets are moving up and down and not only in one direction.
- Finally, because they are generally based on technical criteria, many scalping strategy may be readily automated within the trading system. In addition, because they are generally based on technical parameters that can be computed, scalping methods are often simple to automate with a trading system.
- Scalping can help someone generate regular income by cashing out on the small price changes, plus you have enough opportunity to place the trades the whole trading day. Scalpers are making regular income through various trading methods, but scalping is one of the best trading styles for generating revenue as it is pretty efficient for traders.
In scalping, one does not need any large capital amount. You can easily place trades in large for making small profits.
- Retails investors with low capital often participate in scalping rather than professional investors. Professional investors generally take the path of making a larger profit with a single investment.
Cons
- The requirement for scalping is often treated as a drawback: Higher minimum account values or generation of enough profit to reach their goals.
- The cost of transactions is very high because of the involvement of maximum trades instead of other strategies.
- Scalping is frequently necessary to take advantage of large quantities to create sufficient profit, and it is critical to managing risk to avoid significant losses, which is enormous leverage.
- Scalping requires the highest amount of trades. Because you pay a fee on each business, opening many trades results in more significant transaction expenses. In scalping strategy, you essentially must take advantage of a large number of transactions to make enough money; for some traders, the danger of just making tiny earnings is not worth it. Some scalpers execute dozens or hundreds of deals every day; this method is time demanding and demands intense focus.
- Forex scalping trading is only suited for liquid currency pairs with moderate volatility. Exotic pairings aren’t a good idea. The issue of accurate quotes and broker constraints. Some businesses ban scalping or limit the amount of time a customer must wait for a negotiation.
- When you’re under emotional stress, you have to pay attention to the little things. You must maintain constant control over your activities and make rapid judgments. A reseller will eventually experience emotional fatigue and lose sight of their objective. The employment of robots and scripts can help to overcome this challenging scenario.
Additional Tips
You should conduct many trades per day. However, you’ll need a sizable bankroll for the scalp trade as the trading commission can eat small accounts alive.
Bottom Line
Generally, scalpers do not wait when the price keeps decreasing and hits the stop level. Stop losses play a vital role in scalping as it minimises the potential risks by closing the position at the given point. Trade scalpers must know how to conduct technical analysis because technical analysis is more useful in scalping rather than fundamental analysis. A scalper can take his trading game to the next level if he hones the skill through scalping strategy.
One can learn and practice scalping through a free demo account provided by Brokereo.
