Uncanny! I have evolved over time almost exactly the same approach and MA selection for my very short intraday trades off SP500 using a 15m TF. I don’t use the alligator indicator as such but i do use a three-MA combo of my own preference.
I don’t quite describe mine as scalping but these trades are usually open only minutes, maybe an hour at most, and can produce a quick 100-300 pips with great accuracy. Sometimes the TL is hit in seconds!
My only requirement is to ensure i pick a time when the market is active. But since my actual entry timing is entirely discretionary within the MA structure, i don’t talk about it here on the forum. I was just amazed to read about someone doing almost the same thing!
The header for this post is “Scalping Down Jones Journal.” I assume you mean the “Dow Jones.” This is primarily a futures contract so do you trade Forex or futures?
I am a scalper/swing trader myself and I sometimes scalp the Dow and the Russell 200. However i do position trade as well but I use options more with position trades.
What time frame do you use? It would be nice to see a chart or two so that you can explain what you are talking about.
US30 is the only one I trade now. At 9:30 am I am looking at the 1 min and 5 chart. I have set Goal once hit to get out of the market.
I trade ONLY HIGH Volume Engulfing Candles!! The chart I will post happens everyday… thats … every day Mon thru Friday at 9:30 am EST EVERYDAY !!! again Everyday single day same time everyday
This is 5 min US30 Chart I hit my Daily Goal in less than 1 minute
OK thanks. I trade a 5 min chart and sometimes a range 6 chart. I look for increasing volume and momentum around trend lines and support and resistance lines.
I am a price action trader and I am very much a discretionary trader.
Here is a scalp trade I did on Oil that gave me a $380 profit in 10 minutes.
I started this Scalping Journal hoping to find a few traders who had that same kind of style as myself.
My best trades I am in and out less than than minute, Plan on posting just about everyday and sharing charts and eventually me trading live( then posting).
Will be showing a Daily, Weekly , Monthly Track of Trading Journal
I risk 3%, As you know I demo months before going live on any strategy. I practiced 6 months before going live on this Strategy. It fit’s more to my trading profile and the time I have now. My objective is to grow my account 3% per day but I am in and out so quick I usually grow it by average 7%.
I know a lot of traders are obsessed with risk reward and position size. Unless you have substantial capital and are highly experienced no one should be trading with more than 1 contract perhaps 2 at the best. This should be less than 2% risk on your capital with any one trade. And in reality when you are scalping you should only have one trade on at any one time.
With regards to risk reward traders levitate to a belief in a 2:1 ratio. But risk reward is irrelevant in scalping as most times I am out of the trade long before my stop loss is hit because I would have recognised that the trade is wrong and I cut that trade as early as possible. Same with a winning trade. As soon as that trade starts to show a sign of reversing I take my profit and move on.
It is still important to use a stop loss and a take profit level as you never know with technology when it can fail. You don’t want to run the risk of losing everything thanks to a compuer crash.
I agree with you trading US30 3% is EXTREMLY HIGH. Thank you for pointing that out. My strategy will show results risking only 1% or less of account 2:1 ratio until you know exactly the strategy. Most scalpers are in and out of the market many times a day scalping a few pips here and there.
Like what YOU mentioned what WE do we take a couple trades and take MOST of our PIPS at a certain time of Day then we are done! Less trading the better
hi. If you’re trading the minute TFs, the 89MA is just as an effective trend director, and clearer to spot than the 200MA. I’ve gone down as far as 60MA, and the trend line just comes closer to the price action.
I prefer to think of it as “Pip Stalking”. At least, it is not scalping in the sense of large numbers of trades for a few pips per trade. But i think you are putting more strategic planning into this type of trading than merely sniping at opportunities whenever they happen to arrive.
I compare it with a hunter (whether by weapon or camera), who studies his target, plans when and where is the best and most probable place to engage with it, judges the prevalent conditions and, when all is in synch, lies in wait for his prey to appear. The wait may be short or sometimes long, and sometimes the target does not show at all. But when it does, the action is fast and furious and over very quickly…and the “buzz” from the success is very addictive!
But there is a big difference between a rabbit and a tiger (and the markets mentioned in this thread are no mere rabbits!), and a novice can get badly mauled trading the wrong kind of beast, even fatally.
On this kind of site, newbies are attracted to the sound of fast money like the proverbial bees to a honey pot. But there is no free lunch in trading and this kind of trading does not come cheap either, it is usually very discretionary and requires knowledge and experience to be consistent ( and a reasonable amount of capital to make it worthwhile and buffer the risks).
it is also relevant to consider what kind of trader one is. I do not like having a “portfolio” style of trading with constant open positions in various markets. I quickly get bored with them and I don’t like their constant presence in the back of my mind. But I do like swing trading off 4H/1H charts which is my main systematic trading… But this, the “Pip Stalking”, is where the adrenaline flows: usually once, maybe twice, a day, during the US SP500 session, something spooks the market and it runs, and you are on its back, and it runs and runs. But, occasionally, it can turn on you…and then it is you running for your life!
I like the idea of a thread that is neither scalping nor swing trading. It is a bit different.
I absolutely agree with this.
But maybe there are some other considerations about these, too!
Since I am usually monitoring these short trades constantly, I do not place my stop in the usual sense of limiting the trade risk. I almost always close these trades manually. So my stoploss is a “safety net” type that is well outside the anticipated near term price range expectancy, just in case of system failure or a sudden unexpected serious spike/move.
Similarly, I usually take profits manually as soon as I am comfortable with the result, but I always place a target order well above the market in order to sometimes win that freak spike that occasionally happen before the market quickly reverses again!
Pip Stalker… I like it… Since I trade engulfing candles market can move very quickly. On demo one day moved over 1000 index pips in less than 2 min . Forex has taught me most of all just to slow down , be patient, take my profit and walk away,
Last few days I have continued to hit daily Profit Goal. It took a long time to have a Written plan of action before I started my trading day, A set of rules to follow, how much I was willing to lose that day and what my I was trying to accomplish for the day.
