Scalping strategies · test them free

Forex Scalping Strategies
Built for M1 to M5

In scalping the spread is the first trade you lose.

Six scalping setups for forex and gold, each with the exact entry, stop and target, the session it belongs to and what it costs to run. Then replay any of them on real one-minute charts with the spread charged for the hour you trade — and find out whether it survives before your account does.

TEST A SCALPING STRATEGY FREE → SEE THE SIX SETUPS

THE SPREAD IS NOT ONE NUMBER EUR/USD's spread eats 1.2% of the hourly range at 13:00 UTC and 26.7% at 21:00 UTC. A scalp that works at the London open can be dead at rollover. 13:00 · 1.2%vs21:00 · 26.7%

FREE ON ALL MARKETS

105

MARKETS

SPREADS PER DAY

SECONDS ON ULTRA

TICK-ACCURATE STOPS AND TARGETS

ON EVERY MARKET WITH ULTRA

+EXACT RULES

+REAL COSTS

+SESSION TIMING

+TEST BEFORE YOU RISK

SIX SCALPING SETUPS

Scalping strategies with
rules you can test.

Every setup below has a defined entry, a stop you can place before you click, and a target. That is what makes it testable — “buy the dip” is not a strategy until it has numbers.

1. London opening range break

Mark the high and low of the first 15–30 minutes after 07:00 UTC. Enter on an M1 or M5 close outside the range, stop on the other side of the range midpoint, target 1.5× the range. Skip days when the range is wider than the pair's average. The ORB indicator draws the box for you. See the measured London range break.

EUR/USD · GBP/USD · M1–M5

2. Asian range fade

The Tokyo session often holds a tight range on EUR/USD and the crosses. Sell a test of the range high, buy a test of the low, stop a few pips outside, target the opposite side or the midpoint. Stop trading it once London opens. Compare with the Asian range break data.

EUR/USD · EUR/GBP · M5

3. VWAP pullback

With price above the session VWAP and making higher highs, buy the first M1 pullback that touches VWAP and closes back above it. Stop below the pullback low, target the session high. Mirror it for shorts. Works best in the first two hours of New York.

US100 · XAU/USD · M1

4. EMA 9/21 trend pullback

Take direction from M15: only longs when the 21 EMA slopes up. On M1, wait for price to pull back between the 9 and 21 EMA, then enter on the first candle that closes back beyond the 9. Stop beyond the 21, target 1.5R. One indicator, so it runs on the free plan.

MAJORS · M1 + M15

5. Liquidity sweep reversal

Price takes out the previous session's high or low, then closes back inside within a few M1 candles. Enter on that close, stop beyond the sweep wick, target the middle of the range. The PDH / PDL indicator marks the levels. See how often a liquidity grab actually reverses.

GBP/USD · GOLD · M1–M5

6. Gold New York open momentum

Gold often makes its fastest move of the day in the first hour after 13:30 UTC. Enter in the direction of the first M5 candle that breaks the pre-open range, stop at the range's far side, trail behind each new M1 swing. Wider spread, much wider range — test both together.

XAU/USD · M1–M5

WHY SCALPING BACKTESTS LIE

What a scalping test
has to get right.

On H4, a pip of spread is noise. On M1 it can be a third of your stop. These are the places a typical candle backtest flatters a scalper — and how the replay handles each one.

WHAT SCALPING NEEDSTYPICAL BACKTESTFXBACKTEST

Spread for the hour you trade

×One flat number all day

✓Measured for each UTC hour from bid and ask data, or type your broker's

Stop and target in the same candle

×Guesses, usually the target

✓Settled tick by tick on Ultra

One-minute history

~Often paid or a few months

✓Last 6 months free on all 105; back to 2009–2018 on Ultra

Below one minute

×Rare

✓S5, S15, S30 and tick replay on Ultra

Commission

~Sometimes

✓Per lot, typed to match your broker

News in the way

×Invisible

✓Economic calendar markers on the chart

Results by session and hour

~Totals only

✓By hour on Pro, by session on Ultra

✓YES~PARTLY×NO

Spread figures from our forex spread cost study: EUR/USD averages 0.45 pips, measured across 25 instruments from Dukascopy bid and ask bars. The busiest trading hour averages 3.4× the range of the quietest (volatility by hour).

TICK DATA ON ULTRA

Which came first —
the stop or the target?

A one-minute candle tells you the high and the low, not the order they printed. For a scalper with a 5-pip stop and a 10-pip target, that order is the whole trade.

fxbacktest.app/app · replay

A trade on the FxBacktest replay chart with its entry, stop and target lines

MEASURED ON GOLD, 2016–2025

The stop came first in 67% of double-hit candles.

When both levels sit inside one candle, a candle-based tester has to pick — and most pick the target. We replayed the same gold setups on real ticks: the stop was hit first two times out of three. Random entries that showed +0.06R on candles came out at 0.00R on ticks.

Tick-accurate stop and target fills on all 105 markets
The spread actually quoted on the tick you entered, not an average
Replay a candle tick by tick, or switch to S5, S15 and S30
The same session, the same rules — just the truth inside each bar

ULTRA105 MARKETSS5 · S15 · S30

Read the full measurement on the gold tick data page.

BEFORE YOU SCALP LIVE

Five rules every
scalping plan needs.

Write these down before the first test. If you cannot fill one in, the strategy is not finished yet.

THE CHECKLIST

Session, cost, stop, size, stop-for-the-day.

A session window. Name the hours. Most scalping edges live in London and the New York overlap and disappear in the Asian lull and at rollover.
A cost ceiling. Spread plus commission should stay under about a fifth of your stop. If your stop is 5 pips, a 1.5-pip spread is already too much.
A stop placed before entry. Structure-based, not “I'll close it if it goes wrong”. On M1 there is no time to decide.
Fixed risk per trade. Size from the stop distance so every loss is the same fraction of the account. The order panel sizes the lot from your stop for you.
A daily stop. Three losses or a fixed loss in money, then you stop. Scalpers lose accounts to the 15th trade of a bad day, not the first.

THEN MEASURE IT

100 trades, then read the report.

Thirty trades tells you almost nothing; the noise is bigger than the edge. Replay until you have about 100 trades of one setup, then look at four numbers: expectancy after costs, profit factor, maximum drawdown in R, and results by hour.

If expectancy is positive only in two hours of the day, that is not a failure — it is your session window. If it is negative everywhere once the real spread is in, you just saved the account you would have lost finding out live.

Not sure how big a sample you need? See how much a backtest can be off by chance.

TEST IT NOW

From setup to verdict
in one session.

No download, no data to buy. A browser and a free account.

PICK MARKET + M1

EUR/USD, gold, NAS100 or any of 105. Choose a random date or the session you want to practise.

SET COSTS + RISK

Keep the measured spread or type your broker's, add commission, set risk per trade.

REPLAY + TRADE

Step candle by candle or press play. Enter with a stop and target exactly as your rules say.

READ THE REPORT

Win rate, expectancy, profit factor and drawdown — with the spread already paid.

FAQ

Scalping questions.

Short answers about timeframes, pairs, costs and testing.

What is the best timeframe for scalping forex? +

M1 to M5 for entries, with M15 or H1 for direction. M1 gives the tightest stops but the spread is the largest share of each trade there; M5 trades less often and pays proportionally less. Test the same setup on both — the cost difference usually decides it.

Which pairs are best for scalping? +

The pairs with the lowest spread relative to how far they move in your session: EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/JPY in London and New York, and gold for traders who accept a wider spread for a much larger range. Avoid exotics and the 21:00 UTC rollover hour, when spreads widen sharply.

Is scalping profitable? +

It can be, but the margin is thin: a scalp risks a few pips and pays a spread on every entry, so the same edge that works on H1 often fails on M1 once costs are in. The only way to know for your setup is to test it with the real spread for the hours you trade, over at least 100 trades.

Can I backtest a scalping strategy for free? +

Yes. A free FxBacktest account replays M1 on all 105 markets with the measured per-hour spread charged on every trade, and gives you the session report: win rate, expectancy, profit factor and drawdown. Deeper minute history, seconds timeframes and tick replay are part of Ultra.

Why do scalping backtests look better than live results? +

Two reasons. Most testers charge one flat spread, which hides the hours when it is several times wider. And on candle data, when the stop and target both sit inside one candle, the tester has to guess which came first — usually the target. On gold, our tick data shows the stop came first in 67% of those candles.

Do prop firms allow scalping? +

Most do, with conditions. Common restrictions are a minimum trade duration, bans on trading around high-impact news, and consistency rules that limit how much of your profit one day can make up. Check the rules of your firm before you build a scalping plan around it.

More on scalping: how to backtest a scalping strategy, measured spread cost by hour, volatility by hour and gold tick data. Hedging instead? See forex hedging strategies.

Forex Scalping Strategies Built for M1 to M5

Scalping strategies withrules you can test.

What a scalping testhas to get right.

Which came first —the stop or the target?