XAUUSD Scalping Journey – Footprint, CVD & SMC

Hello traders,
I’m starting this journal to document my journey toward becoming a consistent scalper, mainly trading XAUUSD (Gold).
I’ve been through a lot of confusion, overtrading, and getting stopped out repeatedly. Instead of jumping from strategy to strategy, I decided to lock in one system and master it.
My Current Approach
I focus on a combination of:

1. Market Structure (SMC)
2. Footprint Chart (Order Flow)
3. CVD (Cumulative Volume Delta)

With a simple execution model:

1. HTF Bias (M15)
2. Key Level (Liquidity / SNR)
3. LTF Confirmation (M1 structure)
4. Footprint confirmation (Absorption / Exhaustion)

Trading Style

1. Instrument: XAUUSD
2. Style: Scalping
3. Timeframe:
   1. M15 → Bias
   2. M1 → Execution
   3. Footprint → Entry confirmation

Risk Management

1. Target RR: 1:2 – 1:3
2. Fixed risk per trade (still optimizing)
3. Focus on quality over quantity

What I’m Working On

1. Avoiding entries in the middle of moves
2. Waiting for pullbacks instead of chasing
3. Reading footprint correctly (absorption vs exhaustion)
4. Staying aligned with HTF bias

What I’ll Share Here

1. Trade ideas (before & after)
2. Markups (HTF + LTF)
3. Footprint insights
4. Mistakes and lessons

Rules I’m Trying to Follow

1. No trade without clear bias
2. No entry without confirmation
3. No revenge trading
4. If conditions are not complete → NO TRADE

Goal
Not to hit big wins, but to become:
Consistent, controlled, and precise

If anyone here trades footprint/order flow or gold scalping, feel free to share insights. I’m here to learn and improve.
Let’s grow.

This is my last trade with 1:3 RR,

the reason, is the htf M15 is still on the strong bullish, and theres a pullback, and as you see when it hits the low m1, the price started to reacting, and seeing the seller is exhausted making the price to go down, but the CVD is on the same level,

i entery after the absorbtion candle closes, red delta and green candle ( Seller try to push the market to down side, but failed ), and stop loss little low from the confirmation candle

Here is my setup, the m1, and m15 chart for analyzie the smc, the m1 Footprint using the GC chart, and m5 footprint for knowing the strength of seller/buyer,

i entry on m1