Overtrading is not taking "too many" trades. Indeed, the more trades you can do WITH A POSITIVE EXPECTANCY the faster you grow your account (OTHER THINGS BEING EQUAL!), and, perhaps more important, the faster you get down the learning curve. BUT-- having said this, I would argue strongly in favor of systems with fewer trades and higher profit margins per trade than those with many trades with tiny margins. It's just so much easier to do! Also, the former method is less affected by the HFT algo's. Overtrading usually means one of two things: either putting on too big a position per trade (too much risk), OR you are taking low quality signals in order to do more trades than you are getting high quality signals for--something that is always a temptation for me! But don't be afraid to initiate trades if you are getting high quality set ups and you are not risking an excessive share of your trading account on any one trade.
I totally agree with you regarding the 3 highly selective trades per day. A scalper today needs to be a sniper and wait for the right market condition that she/he sees as the right one to trade. I also think that the right market condition can last few seconds to few minutes: Only during that period of time scalps or small trades if you prefer, can be made. I see scalping today as more related to the small period of exposure instead of the (very small) number of ticks that one can scalp. This is also why I think no successful scalper today needs to stay in front of the screens all day long, it just has to be planned. Regarding the believers, they will always find a way to explain the inexplicable and the non-believers will always find another way to explain why what was explained, is just not possible. But, only a believer will find enough motivation and internal ressources, to reach what appears to be unreachable. Best!
3 trades a day buy and hold ?....lol. Look, I scalped for years using tick charts but "scalp" needs to be defined. In my case, it was for 2-3 points in the ES per contract with 6-8 ticks of initial risk and was perfectly satisfied. On a highly volatile day, upwards of 20 signals were generated. Since going to a day swing methodology on 5 minute charts, indeed overall profitability on fewer trades with less stress was the result...a result I am happy with. They are still day trades and never "buy and hold" but signals range typically between 1 and 5 per day.
I mean I can make the same argument that 3 trades a year is better, and 3 trades a decade is even better, and buy once and hold is the best. Scalping is very close in risk profile to selling naked options, imho. Very high win rate with occasional large losses. It’s trading for income.
Now there's an extrapolation. I wish everyone good fortune ! If you can make consistent profits over a protracted period of time scalping and competing directly with the Bots and Algos and ATS's and the order flow buyers, then by all means keep doing what you're doing. Personally, I'm all about taking fewer trades with better risk/reward and targeting bigger chunks of trading range.
Sure you give up a few ticks when scalping because you're competing with bots, but that does not mean that you cannot be massively profitable. Think of the the ticks you give up competing with algos as an additional cost to playing the game, but if you play the game right then you can still make a ton of money. Just look no further than Big Mike. The big mistake traders make is spending too much in front of their computers all day long. They are waiting for the perfect setup, and if it does not come right away then they jump into a suboptimal trade and break their winning rules. Since switching to https://www.ninjamobiletrader.com/, my patience for waiting for the right setups has increased exponentially, leading to much higher win rates and positive expectancy.