Scalping

Scalping targets many small gains — a few cents to a fraction of a percent per trade — with hold times measured in seconds to minutes. A scalper might take 30-100 trades in a session, exploiting micro-moves that longer-timeframe traders ignore entirely.

At that frequency the cost structure is the strategy. A scalper netting 8 cents per winner cannot survive a 5-cent spread or sloppy fills, so the style demands liquid names, direct-access routing, hotkeys, and commission plans built for volume. It is also where the PDT rule bites hardest: the trade count that defines the style requires either $25,000+ in a margin account or workarounds like a cash account with settled-funds limits.