Having just picked up trading stocks in the last year, I have come across a few types of trading strategies. One of them is Scalping. As long as i understand it properly, this is when you enter and exit trades as the trends move up or down (or sideways) intra-day, usually between a few seconds, to a minute or an hour or so. I could be very wrong with that definition, i still have not looked it up, but it sounds about right.

I have been learning and trying to refine this strategy for the last 7 trading days, it certainly is not a strategy i will be utilizing for the long term. I find there is too much riding on the buyers and sellers using the same trend lines that i see forming in the charts to influence the price action. As trend lines and developing patterns in the charts tend to help predict price movement a great majority of the time, I don't like the odds to make this strategy top on my list. There needs to be more of a catalyst involved. I notice that when the trading volume is high and the tape is moving fast, these patterns are more predictable, helping focus better entry and exit of positions. Not to mention it can easily be considered "Over-Trading".

I have chosen to spend this time learning this specific strategy as it entices me to understand the Level 2 (market depth),this is one of the major influences in how i enter and exit positions while scalping. This will in-turn help me with becoming a better trader as a whole. 

The next challenge i will be working on is entering and exiting positions during heavy price movement, particularily in the first few minutes of the trading day. I have struggled with this since my first trade. I have found the price action difficult to judge my entry/exit points quick enough to maximize profits and reduce losses, hence why i spent the last week working on trading with market depth. 

After spending the last week trading like this, i feel like i wasted perfectly good trades on minnute price movements to try and catch a breakout here and there. This is not good and as a wise man once said: "Do not over-trade", i would classify scalping as a form of it without question.