Please don't take anything I say personally but I'm afraid you don't understand the very definition of scalping. A scalp can last from a few minutes to a day. A "day trade" can last from a couple of hours to a few days. This is what any professional trader will tell you. Your money management wasn't sound. You said you were down 25-30 % on corrections which again shows that you didn't understand what scalping is. In scalping you hunt for small setups, Anywhere from 1.5R to 3R with tight stop losses. You never risk more than 0.5% of your account on any scalp cuz that's the very nature of a scalp.

Did you ever go through any formal course in trading before jumping in? like babypips etc? Cuz any good trading course will teach about risk management and how you cut your losses straight away. You don't hold and hope for a recovery. The Professionals don't trade in that manner. The word "Hope" isn't in a professional trader's dictionary let me assure you that.


And how was your experience in the stock market? What kind of returns were you able to achieve while trading stocks? Cuz from what you have described you aren't a professional trader or were at any point. This is a very novice/retail way of going about trading. If trading was all about Chart patterns and indicator signals then everyone would have become a millionaire by now. Just cuz you can name a head and shoulder pattern or read a divergence on a chart doesn't makes you a trader in any way or form. Speaking/knowing trading lingo isn't either. What makes you a trader is your ability to grow your account at a steady rate without huge drawdowns.

You mentioned how much time you spent on the charts but You never talked about your trade plan. What kind of strategies were in your trade plan? what kind of setups were you aiming for? Spending time in front of a chart without any trade plan is useless. You will not learn anything from it. It's like searching the ocean without knowing what you are looking for.

I do however agree with you on the amount of time which can be wasted if you go in without a plan. You can literally spend thousands of hours on the charts and you won't be able to come up with a single working strategy if you don't understand how this market really works. Unfortunately the reason behind it is not the retail traders but what the retail education has to offer. Retail education will only take you as far as Eliot waves, Wykoff's schematics and other harmonic patterns which leave you scratching your head when they won't work out even tho even a 5 year old will be able to spot them. The reason behind them not working out is not the ideas themselves but rather the "smart money" which knows how to take advantage of the dumb money who will be placing their life savings on the line over a "strategy" which they got off from YouTube.

I don't want to demotivate anyone from trading but please do yourself a favor and plan your trading journey out. Think outside of the box, come up with your own strategy. Backtest your strategy for atleast 6 months and then forwardtest it for 6 months. Don't even think about investing real money till you can prove to yourself that your trading plan works and you can grow your account over a period of 6 months atleast. I'm sorry you had a negative experience in the market but the market has done nothing but wonders for me and I can't be more thankful for what I was blessed with. I wish you Good luck and Good Trading