Friday, February 20, 2009

On Scalping

After watching Jules scalp the S&P500 emini, I figured I'd give it a try. Here are some of my thoughts:

I am convinced that successful scalping, while possibly profitable with a quick trigger finger and minimal technical skill, is predicated upon the development of solid chart analysis and a healthy dose of mental discipline.

Trading is exhausting and stressful, especially in this environment. Utilizing a poor understanding of the market to execute your trades will deplete your mental stamina quickly, perhaps faster than your competition's. Without a clear, clean, crisp mental image of the market, you will find yourself wasting precious processing power on tasks that others, better disciplined, can execute more efficiently and thus more effectively.

In the short amount of time that makes up a scalp, instances of waste or conservation can make the difference between a gain and a loss. Practice with chart analysis will increase your efficiency and make you more competitive. Learning to watch your "mental" stamina will get you in the game when you're at your best and get you out when your accuracy starts to fade.

And, yes, I did fairly well today =D I'm happy and so is the owner of the fund I manage.

Take care.
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3 comments:

Jules said...

Wonder how I missed this post earlier....

Yes, Panda, scalping is very tiring (yes both physically and mentally)and extremely bad for the eyes in the long run(I stare at my screen and the tape for more hours than the 9 hours people generally spend at work...imagine reading the market depth of ES during US trading hours...), and you definitely cannot watch porn or chat online while you're at it :-) But it's the only way I can trade comfortably (what an irony), especially in the current market. Something to do with me being a control freak I guess :-)

So, are you going to be scalping more?

Jules said...

Oh, Panda, you have to check out Master of The Universe: http://masteroftheuniverse.wordpress.com/

Jules said...

I see you already have him on your list :-)