Last updated: 28.02.2023
Author:
Taso Anastasiou
Adviser
CFD & Trading
Experience
> 20 years
Whether you’re a complete beginner or an experienced trader, you will likely have seen the term “scalping” being discussed.Scalping is essentially a means to trade certain currencies using real-time analysis, with the intention of making a small profit by holding a position for a short period.
It’s one of the most popular forex techniques, and with nextmarkets, you can learn how to use a scalping strategy to your advantage while trading.
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Scalping: how to benefit
A one-minute scalping strategy is a great technique for beginners to implement. It involves opening a position, gaining some pips, and then closing the position shortly afterwards. It’s widely regarded by professional traders as one of the best trading strategies, and it’s also one of the easiest to master. The main aspect of scalping is quantity.
To this end, it’s not uncommon for most traders to place more than one hundred scalping trades each day. To benefit from a scalping strategy, it’s important to choose the best forex broker for small spreads and zero commission – this is why nextmarkets is ideal for scalping.
Scalping trading tips
Successful scalping relies on you being passionate about what you’re doing and willing to invest time into monitoring the markets and developing the best strategy. This is because you’ll need to wait for the market conditions to give you signals to decide whether to go short or long. Most forex scalping traders work on small timescales such as 15 minute, 5 minute and 1-minute charts when day trading.
To enjoy returns from forex scalping you’ll need to develop the skills to be able to quickly execute orders and close open positions. Gaining an understanding of when to make a move whilst day trading is crucial, too. Choosing the right pairs is also important – lookout for pairs where nextmarkets offer low spreads to make the most of your forex scalping.
The best scalping trading strategy
There’s no ultimate rule regarding the best trading strategy. The best trading system to employ will depend on the current market conditions. Of course, keeping your investment safe is important, and to do this you’ll have to make use of stop-losses. Stop-losses should be arranged around two or three pips, below the last low point of a swing.
It’s not uncommon to gain 6-12 pips on a trade. Aim for this and you’ll be on the way to success. Before you invest any real funds, give a try to a free nextmarkets demo account that allows you to practice with virtual currency. This way, you can hone your skills before employing your scalping strategy for real.
Scalping strategies UK that work
To find out what scalping trading strategies work best, it makes sense to choose a trading system and platform that offers help and advice from professionals who specialise in scalp trading and can help you build a trading strategy designed to benefit you. nextmarkets offers CFD trading tutorials, chat monologues and video tutorials to help you better understand how to deploy a strategy. It’s also important to remember that the best strategies when trading require discipline. Price movements can be sudden, and a lack of discipline when trading can cause you to lose small profits.
While some brokers will charge commission for this sort of service, there are a select few apps on the market that will provide this information for free. It’s important to do a little bit of research and read customer reviews to find out which platform will work best for you. Whether you’re a newcomer or an experienced trader, you should download the nextmarkets app that offers help, support and advice to develop your strategy.
Fact Check
Want to know how nextmarkets could help you develop your trading strategies and make the most of the financial markets? Sign up today. Trading involves risk, so with a demo account, you’ll have access to all the features our regular users have, including trading insights and real-time analytics without your own risk of losing capital allowing you to work on a successful trading strategy. Here are just a handful of reasons why you should sign up:
- An easy to use app with an intuitive interface
- Up to 200 monthly curated investments tailored to your trading style
- Support and investment advice from professional traders to help you succeed
Start small and scalp lightly
In the world of forex scalping and scalp trading, money management is incredibly important. If you want to become a scalper and enter the realm of scalp trades, you should be aware that you should never invest more than you can afford to lose. While scalping can involve performing hundreds of trades in a single day, each of these trades should be small enough to not damage your existing portfolio in the event of a loss.
Many professional traders abide by a “one percent” rule when seeking successful trades. This means they do not exceed one percent of their overall funds in a single trade. However, even this could be too much if you’re using the scalping method – one hundred trades in a day at one percent each is effectively all of your funds and you might find yourself losing money rapidly. Trade wisely, and follow the trades of the professionals, to begin with.
Learn with virtual currency
As a beginner, it’s only natural that you might be apprehensive about investing your own funds without any real trading experience, after all, trading involves risk. The good news is that there are plenty of platforms that allow you to try forex trading with free virtual currency. Whilst you won’t be able to seize gains of a few successful trades or be able to make any small profits, you will eliminate your own risk of losing any capital.
This means you can perfect your scalping strategy and dip your toe in the forex market before risking any of your own capital. nextmarkets allows you to mirror the trades of the professionals, and with detailed tutorials, you’ll learn the answers to these basic questions and more:
- What is CFD?
- What is forex?
- What is day trading?
5 minute scalping explained
The 5 minute scalping strategy involves looking for momentum on short-term (5 minute) charts. The trader needs to lay on a couple of indicators. First, a twenty-period exponential moving average (EMA) is placed. This helps to determine any trends. The next indicator is the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) histogram. This helps to gauge momentum.
After this, the following rules should be applied:
- Keep an eye open for currency pairs trading lower than the EMA, and wait for a negative MACD.
- When the price crosses the EMA threshold, ensure the MACD is either crossing from the negative into the positive or has already crossed.
- Go long, approximately ten pips above the EMA.
- Buyback half of the position at entry, minus the amount risked.
For more information on Momentum strategies, be sure to visit our in-depth guide.
1 minute scalping strategy pros and cons
The beauty of a short scalping strategy is that there is less exposure to risk. Brief exposure to the forex market and stock market reduces the chances of running into unexpected events – like losing money rapidly. Small profits and movements are easier to achieve, as a larger supply/demand imbalance is required before large price changes occur. The logic behind the 1 minute scalping strategy is that small moves happen much more frequently than big ones during a trading session – even when the markets are relatively quiet and stable, forex scalpers can make money from small moves.
However, large deposits are needed to make decent returns on short scalps. A 1-minute scalper will also need good instincts, mental arithmetic and fast reflexes. Scalping can also be time-consuming and stressful – so consider all your options and skillsets before setting your sights on a 1-minute scalping spree.
The importance of technical analysis
Like most broker strategies, scalping requires a good amount of detailed technical analysis for the trader to benefit. Automated market analysis allows traders to predict how the markets could perform based on historic data and detect the chance for small price changes. Analysis can be as simple or as complex as you like, but it’s important to find a trading platform that provides you with as much technical data as you need.
Whether you’re looking to improve your CFD trading strategies, forex trading strategies or day trading strategies, you’re going to need the right charts, graphs and data to succeed. With nextmarkets, you’ll get all of this and more.
15 min scalping strategy: when to buy/sell
If you’re implementing the 15 min scalping strategy, you should consider buying when bullish pressure exists. This can be evidenced when the SMA indicator crosses an EMA or 120 or more on your chart. Generally, if your stochastic indicator is crossing into the “oversold” region at any time, it’s the right time to buy – just remember to place your stop-loss approximately 2 pips below support level.
When it comes to selling, apply the opposite criteria: if the SMA drops below the EMA, act fast to protect your investment from any adverse event. For further information on how to understand charts and graphs (a vital component of scalping), you should consider opening an account with a platform that offers free help, advice and tutorials.
Your trading questions answered by nextmarkets
With nextmarkets, we understand that both newcomers and experienced traders will always have questions regarding the intricacies of the forex market, the CFD market and more. We’re here to make forex trading for beginners as easy as possible. We want our users to succeed as traders, which is why we’re always on hand to answer any questions you may have. This level of support is unparalleled in the industry, which is why so many new and experienced traders are choosing us.
With nextmarkets, you’ll learn about the following, and more:
- How to trade CFD
- Day trading for beginners
- Forex trading for beginners
Did you know?
At nextmarkets, the security of our customers is our number one priority. We don’t charge commission and offer competitive spreads, and we also guarantee:
- Flexible withdrawal and deposit options – trade the way you want to
- Financial backing from the biggest industry names
- Deposit protection insurance of up to £10,000 via the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)
Want to know more? Simply get in touch or download the nextmarkets best CFD trading app today and find out for yourself.
The suitability of successful, simple scalping strategies
A simple and successful trading strategy when forex scalping requires time and dedication. Whether scalping is suitable for you or not will depend on how much time you are willing to set aside for trading. This is because scalping involves continuous market analysis and the placement of many orders in a day. In many respects, employing a trading strategy designed around your needs can be just as demanding as a full-time job.
In addition to this, there are only a short number of hours each day when you can scalp currency pairs, as the markets aren’t always open – this means setting aside a defined chunk of your day to dedicate to scalping. In addition to this, you’ll need the ability to think fast, and to act even quicker. If you match these criteria, scalping could be the right technique for you.
Learn scalping techniques with nextmarkets
At nextmarkets, we understand that everybody learns in different ways – that’s why we offer tutorial methods to suit all needs. Not everybody wants to sit and read articles, and some people prefer a more dynamic, interactive approach to understanding the markets. That’s why we offer video tutorials and chat monologues from professional traders, so you can gain insights into how to work the markets to your own benefit.
In addition to this, you can expect to benefit from:
- An intuitive, easy-to-use interface
- Competitive spreads as low as 1 pip
- Zero commission on all trades, allowing you to keep more of your returns
Best scalping trading strategies ever for beginners
A useful strategy when that a lot of traders prefer when day trading involves scalping currency pairs over a short time frame (1-15 minutes). 1-minute and 5-minute scalping techniques are the most popular, although it’s worth trying each of them out with a demo account to find which works best for you and lower exposure risk.
A well-executed 1-minute scalp could help you to profit around 5 pips, while a 5-minute scalp could net you a gain of 10 pips on each trade. When it comes to selecting currency pairs, it’s important to choose a volatile pairing that will result in a higher number of moves. If you’re still uncertain, it can be beneficial to mirror the trades of professional scalpers to gain a deeper insight into how the technique works. With nextmarkets, you will receive trading ideas from eight or more professional market experts in real-time.
Protect your investment with stop-losses
When scalping, the best way to ensure your investments are protected is to use a stop-loss. If you trade without stop-loss in place, unexpected market volatility and any adverse event could wipe out your funds. However, it’s also important not to set your stop-loss too tightly, as this could result in a gradual decline in funds which is just as damaging.
To prevent this, you should familiarise yourself with how stop-losses work – it’s good practice to allow plenty of breathing space while ensuring you won’t encounter any major losses. This way, you can enjoy healthy returns when you make the right scalping decision.
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Succeed with fundamental and technical analysis
If you’re embarking on forex scalping, be prepared to invest plenty of time into your trades. To make things easier over the course of your day trading, you should combine fundamental and technical analysis.
Most professional forex traders rely on fundamental analysis to know when to trigger a trade and take advantage of the forex market, whereas technical analysis provides an insight into when to actually enter the trade. nextmarkets provides you with enough data to deduce when to act – and if you’re scalping, you’ll need to be prepared to act quickly to pounce on those small price movements.
Learn how to scalp with nextmarkets
Whether you’re a complete newcomer to forex trading and the forex market or you’d simply like to improve upon your existing strategy, there’s never been a better time to try out the UK’s latest and best trading software. With a nextmarkets forex demo account, you’ll benefit from £10,000 in free virtual currency to hone your skills and discover the scalping trading strategies that work best for you before investing for real.
The latest version of the nextmarkets app is available from the App Store (iPhone) and Google Play Store (Android) and all you’ll need to sign up is an email address. Start trading the smart way today, and enjoy a healthy return on your investment.
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