Day trading has always been a tough game, requiring a very strong psyche, discipline and a high level of trading skills to succeed in.
Nowadays though it's even harder due to the stronger competition, not only by humans but especially by computers trading at a speed a human trader simply can not match up to. High-Frequency Trading is happening in literally all of the popular markets out there and like Chess, scalping has become a game where humans cannot win against the AIs anymore. Add to that the speed/location advantage of the HFT shops and the odds of success decrease even more.
My advice is to forget about scalping. Even without the trading bots, odds of success to make money scalping are very low as the trading costs involved are incredibly hard to overcome. To not get completely killed by trading costs you need to trade in very liquid markets. But that's exactly where the robots are.
But not everything is lost, maybe all you have to do is to slightly adapt as a day trader. Here are some of the things you can do:
- The longer your trades last, the higher your profits (and losses) will be on average. It's a simple fact, if your trades last 4 hours on average, you'll be much more likely to catch a big move than if you average trade lasts 5 minutes. This way the HFTs can't hurt you as much anymore and also trading costs will have much less of an impact.
- You don't have to do 20 trades per day to be a successful day trader, quite the opposite! The more you trade, the higher your trading costs and believe me these trading costs will kill you in the long run.
- Don't get married to a specific market, instead, diversify your day trading over different, uncorrelated markets. This will strongly increase your chances of success as you'll stop seeing opportunities in a market where there aren't any.
- Day trade only markets that provide a good bang for the buck. I do this by looking at the average daily range of a market in relation to the average trading costs.
- Trade the news. I know you often hear the opposite advice but if you learn how to do this right, trading the news is one of the best ways to day trade. Just look at the markets, especially currencies. Isn't it true that most big moves happen right when some economic report is coming out? Sure, volatility explodes and liquidity often isn't that great. But hey, isn't high volatility exactly what you're looking for as a day trader? Now first you need to do your homework of course and have a plan ready on how to trade each of the specific news events.
CFTC RULE 4.41 - HYPOTHETICAL OR SIMULATED PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE CERTAIN LIMITATIONS. UNLIKE AN ACTUAL PERFORMANCE RECORD, SIMULATED RESULTS DO NOT REPRESENT ACTUAL TRADING. ALSO, SINCE THE TRADES HAVE NOT BEEN EXECUTED, THE RESULTS MAY HAVE UNDER-OR-OVER COMPENSATED FOR THE IMPACT, IF ANY, OF CERTAIN MARKET FACTORS, SUCH AS LACK OF LIQUIDITY. SIMULATED TRADING PROGRAMS IN GENERAL ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO THE FACT THAT THEY ARE DESIGNED WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFIT OR LOSSES SIMILAR TO THOSE SHOWN.
Editors’ Picks
EUR/USD keeps the red near 1.0500 amid market caution ahead of US CPI
EUR/USD holds losses near 1.0500 in the European session on Wednesday. The pair faces headwinds from a cautious market mood and resurgent US Dollar demand, as traders expect an uptick in the US inflation data that could impact the Fed's easing trajectory while the ECB remains on track for more rate cuts.
GBP/USD drops below 1.2750, awaits US inflation data
GBP/USD is back in the red below 1.2750 in European trading on Wednesday. The Pound Sterling loses traction amid renewed US Dollar buying as risk sentiment worsens heading into the key US CPI showdown. The US inflation data is key to gauging the pace of Fed's future rate cuts.
USD/JPY drops from 152.00 after Japanese PPI data
USD/JPY eases from 152.00 in Wednesday's Asian trading, stalling a two-day uptrend. A hot Japan PPI report leaves the door open for a BoJ rate hike next week, supporting the Japanese Yen while the US Dollar upswing takes a breather ahead of the US CPI data release.
Editors’ Picks
EUR/USD keeps the red near 1.0500 amid market caution ahead of US CPI
EUR/USD holds losses near 1.0500 in the European session on Wednesday. The pair faces headwinds from a cautious market mood and resurgent US Dollar demand, as traders expect an uptick in the US inflation data that could impact the Fed's easing trajectory while the ECB remains on track for more rate cuts.
GBP/USD drops below 1.2750, awaits US inflation data
GBP/USD is back in the red below 1.2750 in European trading on Wednesday. The Pound Sterling loses traction amid renewed US Dollar buying as risk sentiment worsens heading into the key US CPI showdown. The US inflation data is key to gauging the pace of Fed's future rate cuts.
Gold price steadies below $2,700 as traders seem reluctant ahead of US inflation data
Gold price seems to have stabilized following good two-way intraday price swings and currently trades around the $2,690 area, below a two-week high touched earlier this Wednesday. Expectations that the Fed will adopt a cautious stance on cutting rates continue to push the US Treasury bond yields.
US CPI set to grow at faster pace in November, edging further away from Fed target
The US Consumer Price Index report for November, a key measure of inflation, will be unveiled at 13:30 GMT by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Markets are buzzing in anticipation, as the release could trigger significant swings in the US Dollar and influence the Federal Reserve's plans for interest rates in the months ahead.
How the US-China trade dispute is redefining global trade
Since Donald Trump took office in 2017, trade flows and market shares have changed substantially. We think that shift is set to continue under looming tariffs and a new protectionist environment.
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