The scalper and the trend follower are the most common types of forex traders. In this article you will learn more about their main characteristics and how they work in the market.
The scalper trader is like a lion, ready to attack any opportunity a market has to take advantage of the little movements. The scalper analyses all trends, but ultimately he is more prone to pick out the short term trends. Often those short term trends are related to the five and fifteen minute’s charts. The scalper does not analyse charts through conventional methods; instead he tends to use their intuition to smell a good trade opportunity. He likes to study charts and wait for the high points before making an investment. His aim is any kind of profit no matter how big or small it is, everything is an opportunity to win and little by little he can collect a huge amount of money.
However this type of trader needs to be always focused, the scalper’s secret is to make a move, get a profit and move on. His success depends on his price behaviour analysis in which he pays special attention to peaks and lows. Trade for scalpers can last seconds or minutes and each investment usually represents a high percentage of their capital.
Differences between main types of Forex tradersOn the other hand the trend follower likes to take his time to analyse trends thoroughly. This type of forex trader tends to be a perfectionist and extremely thoughtful when he studies the market. His main focus is the trend; therefore he needs to understand the trend behaviour and to be patient to have success in trade. He aims only for big profits, therefore he does not trade very often. They don’t really like to put his capital at risk, unless they are 100% sure that it will generate profit.
Usually newcomers in trading start as trend followers, as it offers a more careful and thorough process using the charts analysis. The main focus of beginners is to get in touch with the market in order to understand trade itself and to identify good opportunities for investment. However, some of those newcomers choose to try another path and choose to become scalpers when they feel confident enough with the market, if they like it and it works for them, they’ll stay and kind of mix them both, the others will choose to stay in the calmer trend following waters.
How to pick your trading style?Both are excellent types of traders because they generate have the potential of generating good profits, the difference between them only proves that there are several paths to reach success. They are both effective but each of them are suited for certain types of personality. As some say, a successful trade depends 70% on the trader and 30% on the system that that trader uses. Therefore if you are new in the trade business you need to analyse yourself:
_ What type of personality do you have?
_ Are you patient?
_ Do you have a good intuition?
To be self-aware of it and develop a more suited and proper trying strategy made for you to you. If you have these aspects covered you just have to trade and you will see your efforts paying off.
