I was always amazed how could Peter jcp and other very good traders scalp directly from the charts. Honestly I tried many methods but for me it did not worked just trading from naked charts. I just needed more, sometimes far far more information to start a single trade in scalping mode.

In this blog post I write how do I scalp the market (scalping setup =/= long term trades):

1. first I need 2x3 charts. 3 pairs (AU, EU, GU for example) One candlestick chart shows the market on M30 possibly 2-3 days range with pivot and either macd or stochastic the other shows 10 seconds based line chart with no indicators.(see below picture) I need at least 3 pairs simultaneously because the correlation between them is a good indication about the moves. Sometimes one pair waits while the other jumps on 10 sec and if the correlation is strong on hourly than I know the the first will also follow the move.
2. I need a script which shows the current spread right on the chart next to the latest candle. Since at dukascopy (ECN) spreads are variable therefore compressing spreads are a sign of change.
3. I am very bad in discipline and money management and during scalping I do not really have time to calculate R:R, check breakeven or move stops. Therefore I need another script which do the trade management for me. With this script my only worry is to find good entry points and enter the trade... than the script will adjust the stop, the breakeven, the partial exits and so on...
4. I like to start the trades at or around pivot points. The method is very well described by Chriss Capre and the forexmentor.com's Peter Bain (video here) but only Dukascopy, Prorealtime and tradingstation has such a good pivot point indicator (as I am aware of) what I can use effectively. Prorealtime has the advantage that it can display on the same chart the daily, weekly, monthly pivots with a little text description (W-P, D-P,...)
5. and I do need a lot of signals from different timeframes simultaneously: I need to see how stochastic, macd, DMI, ADX progresses on all time frames from M5 to H4 or above all at the same time. Since I could not find any such complex dashboard I developed one for myself. You can see it on the bottom part of the screenshoot although it is still in development. The idea basically came from the Lightspeed and eSignal also has something similar but this is my own and I can program it in such a way which is good for me.What I actually wanted to implement is to have a single page overview of the entire market.
6. I need alarms: on price, on trendline, on indicator, on price action, on candle formations on key levels on support/resistance proximation. For this purpose I use many different tools which provide me with pop up messageboxes if something noteworthy happens. for this I use Prorealtime's alarm functionality and some twitter based market monitoring tools: like@Dukascopy or @traderMade and I use the tweetdeck application ... and many others.These alarms should be pop up boxes with max 3-5 seconds of display time. Therefore I find the MT4's alarm functionality very bad because if it opens and I have to close it manually otherwise it just a disturbing element.
7. I tried this method on single screen and on double screen but this is my limitation (channel vision) so at least 3 monitors needed. As on my laptop there is only 1 vga and 1 hdmi output therefore I needed a USB2HDMI adapter to connect a 3rd monitor and use extended windows desktop (got no idea on how mac solves this)
8. I need market depth info which is definitively a key element at support or resistance levels. From the mkt depth info I can see what is in front and behind me with +/- 10 pips regarding volume. If I see something like 10m, 12m, 15m and then all of a sudden I see something like 4532m.. than I know that the support line will not be broken. Than later in an hour when everything seems like a double bottom but the market depth shows 10m, 12m, 15m and then a similar "small number" around the same price where an hour ago was that huge unpenetrable thick volume than I know that the support will be broken so I abandon my long entry to play the reversal (even though it is not a sign of a short as it could be a false breakout).  Dukascopy by default shows the top 10 depth levels only but there is a script which shows the full mkt depth as well (link).
9. finally. I am just a human. a fallible man age of 38 so my focus is not eternal. But coffee is not a help since it is good for 30 minutes but with coffee there is no way to keep high level of focus for say 12-16 hours (as i usually start trading before LON open and I do it till the start of New zealand. so I use termogenic fat burners due to their high prolonged caffeine and other focus increasing ingredients. This not only keeps my metabolism at an elevated level but also helps remained focused and burns some fat. Dont try it if you do not sport regularly or if you never ever used such things before since there are a lot of other things what needs to be taken seriously if you swithc from coffee to such a hardcore thing. anyway i use the muscletech's hydroxycut and scitechs reform depending on the day

So that is about the prerequisiteies and here are some details:

The order manager is a script (JForex java script developed by www.molecule6.com) it tracks my order book on the server and it makes the neccessary adjustment (like adding stop or moving to breakeven or exiting partial)

I have tweaked this tool a little bit because I realized that my lack of discipline sometimes turns this very useful tool off. So I added a wrapper method and during the session there is no more way to turn it off only if I turn off the whole platform  and close all of my positions. So I am not disciplined but this way I have no other chance than to stick to any previously set stop level. (Dirty trick against myself but works and as I have learnt forex is all about risk management. Nothing else is as important for margin based trading! Since the source code available I've made a few non visual modifications in the code  (like the tick-by-tick update).

Spread info the key to start the scalp: let's say price is around pivot R2 which is also yesterdays' high so I wanna short and price just consolidating and fighting with te resistance point. Than comes the spread info: I wait as long as the 10 second chart turns south and the spread compresses say below 0.5pip or sometimes to 0.2 pips and I press then the sell button. (0.2 is feasible but only when price turns direction) only the right entry point is my concern the order management tool right after the trade is filled the script takes care and places the stop, watches the possible breakeven possibility. and manages the rest of the tasks. Unfortunately sometimes I get a partial fill on one price and the rest either on an other price or not at all. this is controlled by the slippage which still not handled my setting is 0 though.

So I can go and look for another entry setup.

I do need this information since I am not really stick to the 2% rule. For scalping I go with full leverage so the maximum stop loss level must be less than 1 pip or I am dead. 10 pips in this way is a huge jump in my account and if I get a runner than I am done with the month.

Here are some alarms from the prorealtime. My subscription allows only 20 alarms to be created.

And finally my tweetdeck. This app usually hihded in the system tray and I see only the alarms in my screen's corner but since zerohedge, financial times or saxo analysts usually just tweets their new analysises I regularly open it and check for any news. It also connects to my Facebook site and if there any news up there it fetches the info for me as well. Twitter is real time updated but Facebook only in every 15 mins. I tried to select those feeds which are the fastest some of them are far faster than any other news service I know.

OK. that is my method for days like today when nothing really happens. feel free to comment it. but do not print it out.. save the forests :))