Forex
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6 day ago
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Written by Greenup24
Scalping is one of the fastest and most active trading styles in financial markets. Its goal is to generate very small but frequent profits from short-term price fluctuations. In this approach, a trader may execute dozens or even hundreds of trades in a single day, with each trade remaining open for only a few seconds to a few minutes.
Unlike swing traders or position traders, scalpers do not rely on large price movements; even a few pips or ticks are enough to achieve their objectives.
Scalping is built on three fundamental principles:
Instead of hunting for large market moves, scalpers exploit very short-term supply and demand imbalances.
Scalping is almost always performed on lower timeframes:
At a more advanced level, some professional scalpers also use Tick Charts or Range Charts.
Important note: Higher timeframes (such as 15 or 30 minutes) are typically used only to identify the overall market direction.
Not all markets are ideal for scalping. The best markets share the following characteristics:
These markets offer fast price movement and frequent opportunities but require strong risk management.
EMA 9, EMA 20, and EMA 50 are used to identify short-term direction and pullback areas.
Levels 30 and 70. In scalping, RSI is mainly used to gauge short-term momentum rather than classic overbought/oversold conditions.
Useful for identifying price compression and planning entries on breakouts or mean reversion setups.
Extremely popular among professional scalpers. Prices trading above or below VWAP carry significant importance.
Sudden increases in volume often signal rapid price movement and are key for entry confirmation.
A simple and commonly used example:
The risk-to-reward ratio is small, but a high win rate is far more important.
Scalping without risk management equals guaranteed failure.
A professional scalper focuses more on controlling losses than chasing profits.
Scalping works best during periods of high volume and volatility:
Scalping in low liquidity markets usually produces poor results.
Scalping is suitable for traders who:
For beginners, scalping is recommended only on demo accounts.
Scalping is a fast, precise, and highly disciplined trading strategy. Small but consistent profits, combined with strict risk management, can make scalping one of the most profitable trading styles, but only for traders who are rule-based and disciplined.