Scalping
Scalping is a trading style built on many short-lived trades that each aim to capture a few pips, with holding times from seconds to a few minutes.
It concentrates activity where liquidity is deepest and spreads are tightest, because costs dominate the math: with a 5-pip target, a 1-pip spread surrenders 20% of the move before price cooperates, and slippage on fast entries cuts further. Scalpers typically run high win rates with small profit per trade, so a few uncontrolled losses can undo a long run of wins.
The style demands sustained attention, fast execution, and unusually strict loss-cutting. It sits at the fast end of a spectrum that runs through day trading to swing trading, and it magnifies every execution detail the slower styles can shrug off.
In a prop-firm challenge
Read the rulebook before scalping an evaluation. Some firms restrict trades held only a few seconds, cap trade frequency, or classify certain rapid patterns as prohibited high-frequency trading; consistency rules can also sit awkwardly with a style that produces many tiny results and occasional standout days. Because per-trade margins are thin, rule friction and widened spreads around news remove a large share of the edge — the fine print to check is summarized in prop-firm rules explained.