GBPUSD NewYork Session

I hit record on my screen this morning while I was scalping a long position. I’m not here to hand out a full strategy guide I’m just walking through my thought process while I was in the trade. These are the things I pay attention to, the way I think about protecting myself, and the little rules I stick to so I can do this over and over.

Getting the Bigger Picture in Place

Even when I’m scalping, I start with the bigger time frames. I don’t care if I’m taking a quick long on a 1-minute chart the higher time frames set the tone. I looked at the 4-hour and the hourly before I even touched the lower chart. The move was clearly up, momentum was flowing in that direction, so my focus was only on longs.

That doesn’t mean I expect the higher time frame to predict every tick. It just means I’m lining myself up with the bigger push so I’m not fighting the market. It’s like swimming downstream instead of upstream.

The Long Setup

When I dropped down into my scalping chart, I had one job: look for an entry that lined up with that bigger picture. Price gave me a pullback, showed me a level I was comfortable with, and I stepped in long.

From that moment, my head is already thinking about two things:

• Where’s the obvious liquidity that price might want to reach?
• Where do I put my stop so that if I’m wrong, I’m out clean?

Liquidity Targets

For me, targets aren’t random. I’m watching where stops are sitting, where highs were made earlier, where people got trapped. This morning, I saw a clear liquidity zone above a prior high. That was my mental target.

When you scalp, you don’t need the market to go to the moon. You just need it to take out those zones where money is sitting. That was my aim—if it runs that level, I’m taking profit.

Protecting the Stop

Here’s where I’m different from a lot of people. Protecting the stop doesn’t mean instantly dragging it to break-even the second you’re up a couple ticks. If you do that, you’ll get wicked out all the time, only to watch the trade run without you.

What I do is move the stop just enough to invalidate my setup if price comes back. Not too tight, not too loose. It still gives the trade room to swing into profit, but it keeps me protected if the move completely fails.

This morning I did exactly that. As price started pushing in my favor, I nudged the stop up. Not to break-even yet—just under the structure that mattered. That way I was safe but not strangling the trade.

Spotting Consolidation

After the initial push, price started stalling. Candles got smaller, wicks showed up both ways, volume dropped off. To me, that’s consolidation.

When I see that, I’m not sitting around hoping. I’m not married to the trade. I’d rather take the profit I’ve got than sit through chop that eats away at it. So I closed.

Could the market have broken out again later? Sure. But I don’t care. My job is to protect what I already pulled out. Chop is where scalpers go broke.

The Account Doesn’t Matter

People are always hung up on account size. They look at the PnL and laugh if it’s small. They don’t get it. This is a leverage game. Size can always be added later. The only thing that matters is executing the same way every time.

This morning wasn’t about “how much” I made. It was about making a clean scalp, sticking to the rules, and recording proof that the system works. That’s what scales.

My Main Takeaways From the Trade

Looking back at the recording, here’s what stood out for me today:

• I lined up with the higher time frame so I wasn’t guessing direction.
• I had a clear liquidity zone marked as my target.
• I protected my stop by adjusting it logically, not emotionally.
• I spotted consolidation early and didn’t sit around hoping.
• I took profit and moved on instead of letting chop eat it.
• I didn’t care about the account size—just about execution.

Why I Record and Talk Through It

The reason I record trades like this is so I can go back, watch them, and hear myself talk through the decisions. It forces me to be accountable. If I broke a rule, the recording shows it. If I followed the plan, the recording shows that too.

Over time, these recordings stack up into evidence. They prove that the process works and that I can repeat it. And that’s the real edge—not luck, not one-off wins, but repeatability.

Final Thoughts

This morning’s scalp was nothing crazy. Just one clean long trade, executed the way I’ve trained myself to. Higher time frame gave me direction, liquidity gave me a target, I protected my stop the right way, and I didn’t stick around once the market started chopping.

That’s the process. That’s the execution. That’s the only thing that matters. Size can come later. Funding can come later. The job right now is just to stack clean, repeatable trades.