Archive for March, 2011
What is Scalping?
Scalping is a investment strategy that traders heavily participate in which heavily utilizes frequent and short-term trades in a matter of minutes, which is much faster paced than any other trading strategy. This particular investment strategy offers the trader the opportunity of making more profits quickly, however, also has the increased possibility of incurring losses very quickly. These trades are generally made within the matter of minutes and sometimes even seconds, and by far and is not intended for the novice investor.
This trading strategy has been founded on the speculation that most derivatives such as stocks, Forex, commodities, etc, will finish the initial stages of its market movements quickly. An example would be that a particular share will have movements which is in the scalpers favor for a short time, and this is when the scalper must exit before it moves in a direction which is uncertain. Often times after the initial movement the product will not show any movements either upwards or downwards.
As you can assume traders whom participate in trading scalping are called ‘scalpers’.
Another reason that scalping is a popular strategy is that it offers the investor the opportunity to decrease their exposure to the volatility of the market area, which in turn provides for the lesser risk. By reducing the investors exposure to volatility and market sector, it will create a strategy to limit the actual risk involved..
It is very important however to remember that any time you are trading and investment, no matter the strategy you are employing it will always have risks. A scalper must ensure that they have implemented proper precautions to limit their risk exposure. It is also important that the scalper must be sure to fully understand the importance of developing and putting to use their particular exit strategy, without this scalping can lead to severe loss of capital.
The scalper should likewise set much more restrictive stop loss limits to reduce their risk of loss. Anytime one is involved in scalping the market they also need to continue to follow and be alert to any breaking news that could have an affect on the markets, which can go for you or against you at any time.
Another reason that scalping the market is used is that profit is easier to obtain as smaller moves are likewise easier to attain. This means that it is much easier to make one pound on a share move than it would be to make a ten pound move. A scalper can profit in a quite market as the small movements is what they are after.
The scalping strategy is one of the top most used strategies in the Forex Market, however is common in the stock market, commodities and many other sectors. Scalping can be done in any derivative if you have the knowledge and the ability to make quick decisions and is easily can be used as the primary or supplementary strategy of investing..