What is Forex Scalping?

Forex scalping is a currency trading strategy used on short time frames, such as one to 5-minute charts, with quick buy/sell transactions that extract between 2 to 15 pips from the session. These quick transactions are often executed with larger lot sizes so that the smaller amounts of pips scalped will still lead to high profit margins.

Warning

The term scalping may conjure up images of someone removing the enemy's hair as a trophy, or the guy standing outside a sold out concert selling tickets for an inflated profit.
Forex scalping is almost as scary, but definitely comes with a huge adrenaline rush - and possibly, quick profit.
Forex scalpers need to increase their per pip dollar value to extract similar profit from more conservative transactions where the cost per pip was lower, and the risk was lower. In other words, the risk to reward ratio is potentially heavier toward the risks. However, Traders who are primarily scalpers may disagree with this statement.
Scalpers user tight stop loss limits as a strategy to minimize loss should the trade go negatively. Tight stops means little play for a market that moves in an up down motion toward a target. Scalpers therefore may be stopped out of many trades that were going in the direction they anticipated, racking up large losses.

Time Frame

Forex scalpers tend to use trading charts on small time frames such as ticks at 1, 3, or 5 minutes. The purpose is to spot quick trade entry and exit opportunities. Scalpers would therefore not hold any overnight trades, or execute trades that will require long time frames to extract profit. Scalpers look for maximum liquidity, so tying up funds in trades that take long to execute does not match the scalping strategy.

Significance

For example:
150 pips x $2/pip = $300 profit (two hours to complete this transaction)
5 pips x $60/pip = $300 profit (5 minutes to complete this transaction)

Benefits

Potentially, scalpers can make high profits quickly because they are willing to risk more. By increasing the per pip value, with just a few pips, they can exit the market with similar profit margins as more conservative traders. It is easier and quicker for the market to move 5 pips in the positive, than it is for the market to move 150 pips in your favor. By anticipating that, the scalper makes multiple small trades scalping out anywhere from 2 to 15 pips at a time at high pip values and quick exits for quick profit.

Considerations

Scalpers tend to be chartists or technical analysts rather than fundamentalists. In other words, they are more focused on what the chart is immediately indicating is about to happen in the very short term, rather than look to news events to consider what the chart may do based on a fundamental reaction to the news.
As a result, the hard core scalper may also consider using software that can be taught or manipulated to scalp automatically. Since forex scalping is very limited in its fundamental analysis of the market, an automated system can be used to react to the pre-determined parameters of the trading charts to automatically enter and exit trades.
The scalpers that do watch the news are the momentum scalpers that take advantage of the immediate drastic response to a news announcement which tends to cause a spike upwards or downwards within the first few minutes of the announcement, then carry a trend for an extended period based on that news. The scalper is not interested in the extended trend, just the immediate reaction.

Expert Insight

According to Mr. Chima Burey, Forex Trader Trainer and Consultant, "Forex scalping is DEFINITELY NOT for the faint of heart, or the conservative investor. Scalping is a very risky form of currency trading. The speed at which the transactions occur, means unless the trades are on an automated system, the Trader should not walk away from their computer when a live trade is open."

Resources

• Forex Scalping Course
• Automated Scalping System