Not sure I follow. You cant understand why people are fascinated with the idea of sitting in front of a computer jumping in and out a hundred times a day and making a ton of money? I was immediately smitten the first time I heard about it. It was when that guy in Atlanta killed his coworkers. I thought to myself that anything that could get somebody that wound up was something I needed to check out.
yikes - who thinks ive got this all wrong!! like i said, usually im in for 10 min for around 10-20 ticks. the 3 sec thing was when you get an unexpected pop and retrace that will typically just appear as a spike on a chart. this may only happen once a month or so. it is not planned as such, it just being an opportunist. likewise, i may only be in for 3 sec if i got it badly wrong! i didnt want this to into an analysis of my trading techniques or style. i just wanted some enlightenment on why so many retail folk, especially newbies seem to want to go scalping. once again, im not saying scalping is wrong for someone with the right set up and temperament.
like your trail of thought!! fine - if they can make a ton of money then more power to them, my point was about guys like you said you used to be - paying silly costs while trying to scalp. as you indicated, youve seen the light (pdq i guess too!!). but why do the others stay? you can still make a ton of money day trading without being in and out 100's of times a day. the only thing a typical retail guy is going to do with an account at ib paying $4.xx r/t (or any other retail broker for that matter) is make the broker rich and not himself.
alot of schools out there promote scalping, because it appeals to the majority of new traders. Only in the market for a few minutes, small losses, small winners, high accuracy, multiple times a day. In reality though, the slippage of not getting filled on your limit or holding a loss to long, the pschyology of thinking your never going to be wrong. all of this leads to a few large losses that take most of the account.