It sounds like you have a good plan...the trick is knowing when the market will give it to you. A trend day is the setup you are looking for. Understanding that it is a trend day is half the battle. Learn to recognize hard daily or even better HOURLY trends...they are few and hard between nowadays. As a scalper you need to be in the NOW zone. Learn VOL charts...I have tried tic charts and they are a step behind. Letting a runner go while locking in profits on your first car is a game winning plan. Cutting your losses when it goes against you is your first line of defense. Put your ego aside.
I agree you have to take advantage of the strong trend days. I think there is money to he made on range days as well but you have to approach those days differently. Your recommendation on volume is interesting. Are you using multiple time frames with it? I've been using a 2K tick chart for some time now and honestly I only make a rare glance of prior days action (apart from prior day & overnight H/L). I agree on cutting losses. I use bracket orders and my stops dont get touched apart from managing winning runners in the 25% aforementioned.
Def use a higher VOL timeframe to give you an idea on direction. I use three to be exact...however I also use minute charts to see what the HOUSES are looking at. It is an art that you need to become proficient at...my metrics may not work well for others.
I like that you made mention of looking a true minute charts. I was going to mention that as an aside knowing a lot of algos / etc. follow these (5 min. for example). I do have one other question off the top I like to ask the experienced. If you don't mind me asking - so you recall how long it took you to start trading profitability on a consistent basis? Otherwise thank you for all the responses. Very gracious of you.
Well, once more into the breech I go, sitting on hands. I hate being down 800 ticks of this, 500 ticks of that, but it is what I have learned to do. If I had done that a few years ago I would have been much better off today. So yes, it is great advice. Kid Gloves this quarter. Ug, it sucks!
No, fuck that noise. I understand that mindset, but because I HATE staring at screens all day, I just fire-and-forget. It is my style for now. Buy, hold, roll. I have contemplated getting back into scalping, but the last time I did that was March/April 2020 when VIX was at 700,000,000 (you know what I mean). I got scarred, and am enjoying the breathing room we currently have. But that's me.