1. Trading is not a profession

Trading is much closer to running a business: you have to make certain investments and take risks in order to make a profit. And more importantly, you must be one of the best in your niche, otherwise your competitors will simply eat you up.

Trading does not provide a stable income or guaranteed profit, and there is no room for illusions: many businesses do not survive, and many traders lose their deposits. Treating trading like a business is a recognition that results are measured not in the number of hours spent at the terminal, but in the quality of those hours. After all, you work for yourself.

2. A scalper must be patient

In addition to quick reactions, scalping requires exceptional patience. Not every swing in the market should be exploited, and not every day is a good time to trade. Don't let negative attitudes push you to trade when there is no reason to do so.

Letting go of unrealistic expectations such as “I’m sitting down to trade - I need to trade” or daily/weekly/monthly income goals will help improve your perception of the market. These setups simply don't work - the market doesn't owe you anything.

Instead of forcefully seeking opportunities, use your time to study or relax. And, of course, assess the situation sensibly - trade where there is trade.

3. Trading cannot be learned

The market is constantly changing and you must adapt to these changes. The altseason in 2018 and 2021 are fundamentally different events, which were traded differently. The job of big money is to deceive you, and the best way to deceive you is to constantly change your strategy. Patterns sometimes work, sometimes they don’t, and this is the norm for the exchange.

You cannot take a technical course. analysis and simply declare yourself a professional trader. In a month, everything will change, you will begin to merge on the same patterns on which you recently made money. And everything will start again.

Your task: to constantly study the market - this is the only way to keep yourself in good shape and not slide into the state of the majority who lose on the stock exchange.

4. A scalper must accurately assess his strength

Scalping $100 is very different from scalping $1000. The psychological side of trading should not be underestimated. Assessing your capabilities is critical in trading. By knowing what level of loss is acceptable to you, you can better manage your risks.

Take the order that you can handle, hold and control. There is nothing wrong with breaking a working order into parts and locally blurring the entry point. Problems begin when a trader sees that he has already entered 2-3 working orders and simply cannot bring himself to close the position.

5. Control of the situation is more important than a good entry point

Without control over a trade, even with an ideal entry point, you can go into the red. Don't let the trade go with the flow, don't wait for a stop loss if you see the market turning against you.

Our biggest strength in scalping is deciding when and how to close a position - don't deprive yourself of this advantage.

6. The market cannot be deceived

The market itself will deceive anyone.

  • Averaging: lead to loss of deposit. Blurring the entry point is sometimes possible, but abuse always ends the same way. Averaging now is an accumulation of future losses.

  • Residues: the market does not always grow back. Many forgotten items are gathering dust in collectors' portfolios, simply because there is no point in selling them anymore. If you are engaged in scalping, such practices simply contradict the very concept. There is no need to wait to break even: if you enter poorly, you will get out badly. If you “get away with it” every time, this attitude will become entrenched and sooner or later will bring a huge loss.

7. There is no grail

Well, it's just not. Don't waste time, don't try to find something that will work everywhere and always. There is no need to think that by switching to a higher time frame or using a new strategy (which, of course, only 1% of traders use), you will cope with the market. In the vast majority of cases, you will simply prolong your losses until later. Deal with it now so you can make money in the future.

This article is a reworking of my alcostream - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLjmWFspTh0