scalps per day, is there a sensible number?
Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2026 11:02 am
Pattern worth noticing: the days with the most trades are usually not the best days. Trade 15 is typically taken because trade 14 lost, or because the screen is moving and sitting still feels wrong.
There's a cost angle too. Ten trades at a 1-pip round-trip cost is 10 pips handed to the spread before the market gets a say.
Quality matters as well. Good setups tend to cluster at the London open and in the first hour of New York. After that, lunch-hour liquidity thins, and the same strategy often delivers weaker follow-through.
Some traders cap the day by number of trades, others by loss, others by time window. Some have no cap but a very strict setup list that limits them to three or four trades anyway.
There's no correct number, and what works probably depends on how often the setup shows up and how quickly decisions get sloppy.
How many scalps do you take on a typical day, and does your results sheet show a point where the extra trades stop paying?
There's a cost angle too. Ten trades at a 1-pip round-trip cost is 10 pips handed to the spread before the market gets a say.
Quality matters as well. Good setups tend to cluster at the London open and in the first hour of New York. After that, lunch-hour liquidity thins, and the same strategy often delivers weaker follow-through.
Some traders cap the day by number of trades, others by loss, others by time window. Some have no cap but a very strict setup list that limits them to three or four trades anyway.
There's no correct number, and what works probably depends on how often the setup shows up and how quickly decisions get sloppy.
How many scalps do you take on a typical day, and does your results sheet show a point where the extra trades stop paying?