Steroid Scalping

Trading Systems
61

Thanks Pipsiphon - I tried it out last evening, did real well at first but struggled with the averaging, I felt I would ahve been better of taking the loss when it was just a little negative, but instead it went to -17, I was short, then entered again with bigger position size but clutzed trying to get out of it, my plan was for every pip the 2nd position went positive i took an extra 100units off the losing trade, it got to eeks peeksy where i wasn’t losing anything or gaining, but i miscalculated the position size and ended up in a buy when i was supposed to be out at break even - so in first minute i was up 10 pips, then got a few more but due to my mistake i only ended up overall about 3pips, maybe more, i started out with a really low positon size, and after about 6 positive trades i had grossed under a $ - so upped it, naturally just in time to take a loss of -5 and balls up the averaging.

I took 13 trades, with only one loss, plus my human error so all in all worked out well - the range was about 30 pips.

I found it difficult to concentrate with the speed of it all, open position, get next ticket ready, open close box…Plus not being familair with the one minute chart every pip felt like 10 speed wise, there would mega red/greeen candle (to my eyes at least) and i’d close out only to find I had about 3 pips! Think the gauge was too big…

I enjoyed it though, found my concentration waned after about an hour and that’s when i began to make errors. I used the S&R and fibs from higher time frame to guesstimate entry and exit rather than your indicators for now as hadn’t a clue how to read them as yet.

Couldn’t believe how much movement there was from minute to minute, and how when it stalled it became a sign that it could retrace and be ready…

thanks a lot, every little helps and all, and glad your trades worked even with your mishap.

62

I felt I would ahve been better of taking the loss when it was just a little negative, but instead it went to -17

Im glad that you mentioned that.
Because in some cases, its the perfect thing to do.

In certain situations, when you can just feel that the price is gonna take off against you, you are much better off just taking the smallish loss…than averaging into it.

You can always get in a little higher, with a slightly larger position, after exiting. Then when the reversal comes you dont have to make up as much to make up for the loss, because you exited earlier on the first lot.
I do this often.
(no recent examples, on my charts…but with time there will be)

It becomes an instinct after a while.
Some trades “deserve” being averaged. Some just shouldnt.
Of course its impossible to know beforehand which ones should or shouldnt.
But with experience and screen time it becomes relatively easy.
I trust my gut/intuition to let me know.
Its proven itself time and time again, so Im always sure to listen to it. :wink:
Stupid…maybe. But its worked for me.

63

Hey Pip

Once again for posting your system and trades. I understand you basically trade to the Asian session but I was wondering have you ever tried right after the U.S. afternoon session closes?

It seems the euro is very rangy during the Aussie session leading into the Asian.

64

have you ever tried right after the U.S. afternoon session closes?

No I havent tried that session.
Life gets in the way unfortunately.
But on thursdays Im able to, so maybe Ill give it a try. :slight_smile:

Anyway…no trades for tonight.
Oanda was giving me connection problems.
It started closing down by itself.
And reconnecting. Then closing again.
Stupidly, I still decided to trade in those conditions.
Pressed the “sell” button, communication took like 2 minutes, and I got in at a horrible spot, then tried to get out with a 4 pip loss…then communication took like another minute…and got out at -9.4 pip loss.
OUCH! :frowning:

Very frustrating…If theres one thing I have learned, is NEVER try trade while your frustrated. It will just make it worse.
Especially trading frustrated, with a shoddy connection. :eek:

Anyone know if having a wireless connection is detrimental to “streaming” quotes and stuff?? Is it “:safer” to be connected by a line?

65

I’m wireless, so no idea whether having a line or not makes a difference - have experienced connection problems with Oanda on occasions tho - usually when its busy, big news and lots of momentum driving price…its quite frustrating, once I queried it as I was in the middle of a winning trade and whne I finally got reconnected it had turned to a loss - all they said was the game platform was operational so I could have seen price using that and they would honour open/close of tickets…bit late then…nor did I know how to close out trades when platform was frozen. It doesn’t happen that much and usually enough time has elapsed for you to forget it occurred, thus be blindsided again.

Choppy anyways out there right now, good day yesterday when price slammed down on � and Euro so I didn’t trade last night and today is mincemeat till direction is decided.

Do you ever take longer time frame positions or do you just scalp? I have been trying placing limit orders with set Take profit at reversal areas and just leaving it alone - only on demo right enough but it seems to be working - Often if I watch price I get freaked in and out with the ebb and flow - tho I like scalping for the in/out/job done.

Cheers

66

Do you ever take longer time frame positions or do you just scalp?

I take longer trades on commodities. Wheat, Lean Hogs, Lumber…etc.
But mostly trade options on those.
But as for forex…strictly scalping. Its the perfect market for it. :wink:

Anyway…on to tonights trades…
Around 12 pips of range tonight, so market was barely moving.
But oanda had its 0.9 pip spread going, and I managed to extract close to 30 pips…so not too bad at all. :slight_smile:

And Im done for the week, since friday nights are closed…so have a good weekend all!

PS If anyone knows where I can get an indicator that displays longer timeframe candles ontop of shorter timeframe candles, please let me know. Ive seen tons of people with it in the DTB thread, but cant find it anywhere. :o Please help!

[B]Weeks Trading[/B]
Sunday - [B]5.7%[/B]
Monday - [B]1.8%[/B]
Tuesday - [B]2.4%[/B]
Wednesday - Platform Issues (-0.65%)
Thursday - [B]1.5%[/B]

67

[QUOTE=۞PIP-SIPHON۞;106798]

PS If anyone knows where I can get an indicator that displays longer timeframe candles ontop of shorter timeframe candles, please let me know. Ive seen tons of people with it in the DTB thread, but cant find it anywhere. :o Please help!

[/B][/QUOTE]

Here you go dude.

68

Thanks Apu. N,

Thats awesome! just what I needed. :wink:

Heres tonights trades.
11 trades. (2scaled) All profit.
Had a nice super-sized short right at the peak.
Took profits early on that one, but still…it was 5.7 pips. :wink:
That one trade gave me my 1% quota :smiley:
Gotta love that. The rest was all bonus.

800×607

Weeks Results
Sunday - 2.9%

69

Couldnt get a screenshot for last night for some reason.
My computer didnt wanna do it…lol
Maybe has something to do with installing Windows 7?

Anyway…will post it if I get it working.

[B]
Weeks Results[/B]
Sunday - [B]2.9%[/B]
Monday - [B]1.2%[/B]

70

Tonights trades…
Nice and quiet,…just how I like it.
Extracted 2.6% out of an 18 pip range.

Oh yeah…and I hooked a wiimote to my computer for some
“minority report” style interaction. :smiley:
Futuristic trading at its best…Gotta love it! lol
Recommend it to anyone with a wiimote…and bluetooth.
Specially google earth. I spent 4 hours playing with that last night! :o

799×606

Weeks Results
Sunday - 2.9%
Monday - 1.2%
Tuesday - 2.6%

71

I,ve been trading in a similar way to yours for a few weeks now but I mostly manage to just break even at the end of the month. You said that scalping to you is mostly intuition and feel and I agree with that. How long did it take you to get this ‘‘feel’’ for the market? I’m actually quite impressed that you retain that high of a positive hit rate with so many trades :slight_smile:

72

How long did it take you to get this ‘‘feel’’ for the market? I’m actually quite impressed that you retain that high of a positive hit rate with so many trades

Ive been trading for 9 years.
But only been scalping for full time income for the last 2.

But…
I was scalping before that, for about 2 years, unprofitably.
Break even at best. But mostly because I was continously getting in hoping for a “big move” which never happened. So I was consistantly buying tops and selling bottoms. Getting out precisely when price would start to go my way. Paying spread too much. Then of course, when the “big move” came…I wasnt in. Then I would jump in too late…and ride my losses back down.
It was an extremely frustrating time. Which Im sure many scalpers have experienced.

Then I decided instead of trying for 15-20 pips, to just shoot for 1-2 pips per trade.
And ever since then Ive made money. Just selling temporary tops, and buying temporary bottoms. I dont care if they arent “real” bottoms or tops…I just skim them for what theyre worth at the time.
If it retraces strongly its a nice surprise and sometimes I can get 5-10 pips.
But most times, I just get my 1-2 pips and Im out.
Then if it continues, Im out with profit, and I dont have to average.
I just get in again lower.
But I do still average in some trades.

But…the biggest point here is spread.
If your broker is anything more than 2 pips spread…dont even bother with a scalping strategy aiming for really small gains. It’ll kill you.

Thats my 2 cents :slight_smile:

73

Pip-Siphon,
Is there anyway you can send me some info on how you scalp. I have been following this thread for some time and can’t figure it out myself. Or can anyone who knows his method. I have been trying to scalp but I keep having bad results. Some help would be lovely.
Thanks, and Scalp On:cool:

74

Hey PipSiphon, been following this thread for a few days and am really impressed! Thank you for sharing your experience with all of us, its really helping. I’m attempting to mimic your technique and am wondering what you mean by 300 fibonacci… can you explain? I get the use of bolinger bands. Also do you just plot your support and resistance lines on the 1 minute chart? Any particular method?

Thanks again for your time.

P.S. I was thinking of starting a skype group for this… Trading during 9-12 CST. Anyone interested?

My skype handle: likes.big.pips.and.can.not.lie

75

Heres tonights trades.
As you can see, I got in right at the top, which was cool.
Shoulda just rode that sucker down 20 or so pips!! lol.
But thats hindisght eh.
Anyway…
After the first short…I went long, and took a loss.
Instead of trying to average that one in I just immediately reversed the position.
Which was the right thing to do. :smiley:
The rest were all good.
6 trades in total - 1.2% gain.

799×605

am wondering what you mean by 300 fibonacci… can you explain? I get the use of bolinger bands.

The 300 is the period for the bollinger bands.
Then the deviation is set to 1.618, 2.618, 3,4
Not really fibonacci, but hey :slight_smile:

Also do you just plot your support and resistance lines on the 1 minute chart? Any particular method?

I plot them on the 5 min and 1 min. I set the charts to hourly, then start drawing the major hourly points.
Then I move to 15, and do the major points.
Then 5. Then 1. The end…results in a matrix of meaningful lines.

But I like to keep my trendline charts naked. Which is why you dont see trendlines on my recently posted charts. Because Ive got them running on another screen. And dont wanna take a screenshot of all my screens. :wink:

P.S. I was thinking of starting a skype group for this… Trading during 9-12 CST. Anyone interested?

Im sure many might be interested…
But as much as I like the idea and community feel of trading rooms, and stuff.
Its just not for me. I tried it before. But found that having other people in the background, talking about other things/pairs, methods, and setups wreaks havoc on my trading. I start seeing the market from many different perspectives which leads to indecision and inaction.
But then again…I know 2 people who would suck at trading if they didnt go to a chat room everyday, so to each his own I guess.

But IMO…Trading should be about you and the market.
You shouldnt be flooded with other peoples views and opinions
And the only competition you should feel, is your opponent, the market. Not other traders.

Weeks Results
Sunday - 2.9%
Monday - 1.2%
Tuesday - 2.6%
Wednesday - 1.2%

76

Thanks for the explaination.

So you use a top down approach to drawing major support and resistance lines, first with hourly, then 15, 5, and 1.

What then is your trigger to enter a trade? Do you go short when support becomes resistance? Or go long when resistance becomes support?

I tried some scalping on my demo account last night during the time frame you trade in and got smoked.

I had 25 wins and 25 losses, but each win was a pip, and each loss was around 3 pips.

77

What then is your trigger to enter a trade? Do you go short when support becomes resistance? Or go long when resistance becomes support?

I dont have specific triggers, like any rules set in stone.
But in general. I buy support. And sell resistance.
But it all depends on the action. I watch the ticks like a hawk.
Thats where I get most my info from.

You’ll notice in many situations on my posted charts, Ive done the opposite and bought resistance and sold support. Mostly because it was easy to see that they wouldnt hold at that particular point.
So really…my method is very discretionary, i guess.

I had 25 wins and 25 losses, but each win was a pip, and each loss was around 3 pips.

Ouch.
How long did you trade for? Because that seems like a lot of trades for a short period of time. 50??
Also…did you scale/average any of them?

Because I’ll tell you one thing…scaling is where I make most my money.
But you do gotta know the limits. Dont just blindly scale into a loser.
Again…its a very discretionary thing.
Thats where my 300Bbands help me out, by providing a “map” of where price is, in regards to the mean, and where it could go, or if its extended to far.
This helps when trying to pick tops or bottoms.

But…like last night…in my second trade. I could’ve just started scaling into that long position. But with the angle of the drop and the hourly confirming. I decided to just reverse my position, with more units.
And rode it down. Instead of scaling it. And it paid.
So sometimes trades deserve to be scaled, and sometimes you just gotta know when to let it go.

I hate saying this…but it comes with experience.
Just keep trying, and it will come to you. :wink:
But while youre learning, use tiny lots, (if at oanda)
So that if you start overtrading, or losing heavily, it wont weigh on your account or mind.

But whatever you do, dont demo trade. (sounds stupid, but its true)
Demo trading can never come close to reality.
If I have one major piece of advice it is this…
Deposit a small amount at oanda, ($20 or so) and trade small units/penny lots.
Any amount of real money is 1000 times better than any demo account at teaching you about yourself.
:slight_smile:

78

Tonights trades…

Loved the action tonight…Hit all the temporary tops.
Then caught a nice ride back up after a big pullback.
Got into my long, right where alot of Cyrox Rainbow traders may have got long…just look at that rainbow chart. :slight_smile:

799×576

Weeks Results
Sunday - 3.1%

79

Well…no trading for at least a week or two. :frowning:
My laptops hard drive went today. :mad:
Was grinding like crazy, then I heard a shatter. :eek:
Have to take it in to future shop and get them to replace it.
Hopefully they dont have BS excuses for me this time.
crosses fingers
Last time I brought my computer in there, they had it for over a month!! :eek:

80

Hey PiP you still there?!

Just wondering if you got your laptop fixed and still trading…