Roundup: Overtrading and boredom trades, the friction that works for scalpers
Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2026 3:06 pm
Roundup: Overtrading and boredom trades, the friction that works for scalpers
Overtrading is harder to notice for scalpers because a lot of trades is the job. The board has several threads that each attack it from a different angle: boredom, lunch, late NY, quiet Fridays, the day after big news. Here's the combined picture.
Know the signs
The overtrading signs thread gives a usable list. Trades outside your planned session, entries on pairs you don't normally trade, setups with only part of your criteria, and costs becoming a large share of gross profit. That last one is a good objective check: if spread and commission are eating a growing slice of what you make, you're probably taking trades that don't earn their cost.
The troubleshooting thread lists the causes: boredom, FOMO, chasing losses, excitement after wins, believing more trades mean more profit, no daily limit, and the platform just being open. A reply adds one that's easy to miss: waiting for a scheduled release. The hour before a big number is often slow, and if the plan is to trade the number, boredom in that hour turns into filler trades.
Boredom, not FOMO
The boredom trades thread makes an interesting claim: most bad London clicks weren't FOMO, they were boredom. Quiet tape, spread fine, brain wanting action. The fix there was a written minimum tape condition before any order is allowed, so inactivity counts as following the plan rather than being lazy.
Time-of-day traps
The news day thread describes a different trigger. After a big volatile day, the next one feels dull, and your sense of normal is still set to yesterday. Ranges are usually smaller after a big event, so chasing yesterday's kind of move means forcing trades. Replies suggest writing the expected range for the next day the night before and comparing it with what just happened.
Limits that help
The threads mostly agree on a mix: a maximum trades per session based on your own stats, trading only the two or three hours with your best results, stopping after a set number of trades without a clean setup, and a physical tally. One reply suggests a sticky note with your allowed trades, crossing one off each entry.
The only disagreement is whether to close the platform or keep it open with friction. Both worked for someone. The common ground is that discipline while staring at noise doesn't.
What time of day do your filler trades happen, and what did you change to stop them?
Threads this pulls from
Overtrading is harder to notice for scalpers because a lot of trades is the job. The board has several threads that each attack it from a different angle: boredom, lunch, late NY, quiet Fridays, the day after big news. Here's the combined picture.
Know the signs
The overtrading signs thread gives a usable list. Trades outside your planned session, entries on pairs you don't normally trade, setups with only part of your criteria, and costs becoming a large share of gross profit. That last one is a good objective check: if spread and commission are eating a growing slice of what you make, you're probably taking trades that don't earn their cost.
The troubleshooting thread lists the causes: boredom, FOMO, chasing losses, excitement after wins, believing more trades mean more profit, no daily limit, and the platform just being open. A reply adds one that's easy to miss: waiting for a scheduled release. The hour before a big number is often slow, and if the plan is to trade the number, boredom in that hour turns into filler trades.
Boredom, not FOMO
The boredom trades thread makes an interesting claim: most bad London clicks weren't FOMO, they were boredom. Quiet tape, spread fine, brain wanting action. The fix there was a written minimum tape condition before any order is allowed, so inactivity counts as following the plan rather than being lazy.
Time-of-day traps
- Lunch. The lunch thread closes the platform, or at least disables one-click and hides M1, then reopens with a mini checklist for the afternoon. A reply has a neat version: switch the terminal to a demo login at lunch, so charts and levels stay put but nothing clicked can cost money.
- Late NY. That thread uses a hard clock: after a set London time, new risk is blocked unless an event trade was planned on paper. Choppy tape and odd spreads plus fatigue is where process scores go to die.
- Quiet Fridays. The low volatility Friday thread found the worst Friday trades almost all came in the slowest hour, when a tiny range looks like a breakout and a small wick looks like a rejection. The mouse needs a job that isn't clicking.
- Last hour of any session, according to a reply in the troubleshooting thread, after sitting there a while with nothing.
The news day thread describes a different trigger. After a big volatile day, the next one feels dull, and your sense of normal is still set to yesterday. Ranges are usually smaller after a big event, so chasing yesterday's kind of move means forcing trades. Replies suggest writing the expected range for the next day the night before and comparing it with what just happened.
Limits that help
The threads mostly agree on a mix: a maximum trades per session based on your own stats, trading only the two or three hours with your best results, stopping after a set number of trades without a clean setup, and a physical tally. One reply suggests a sticky note with your allowed trades, crossing one off each entry.
The only disagreement is whether to close the platform or keep it open with friction. Both worked for someone. The common ground is that discipline while staring at noise doesn't.
What time of day do your filler trades happen, and what did you change to stop them?
Threads this pulls from
- Overtrading in Scalping: Signs and Practical Limits
- Troubleshooting, Why Do I Overtrade?
- Beating boredom trades as a scalper: rules that stuck
- Closing platform during lunch to stop boredom clicks
- Late NY scalp addiction: rules to shut the platform
- Low-volatility Fridays: what I do with the boredom
- Overtrading the day after a big news day, why volatility makes me greedy