Long Term vs Short term (scalping) discussion

This is probably the one main idea i cant seem to get a handle on.

I am brand new to this, doing a 50 dollar live account instead of demo, to account for the psych side of losing/gaining money.

i have been setting SL about 10 pips away. and TP about 10-15. but i only ever seem to hit 5 pips max..
Now im scalping these 1-2 dollar profits when i can, but. How often do most people trade.
ive had an account for about a week and im on almost 100 trades. profits of .20-.40 and losses of more like $1-$2.. I imagine what im doing is only trading the up and down swing and not the longer term trend.
So when trading that longer term trend, what kind of TP/SL are you guys allowing for fluctuation.
Case in point EUR/AUD is on a upward movement this week. But those dips would have normally cause me to hit SL.
Im now long at 1.45047 with a +-50 SL/TP
trying to introduce myself to the "longer" term trending. is 50 enough? do the days determine your threshold.?
I dont have a system per se. i am "self" teaching and will either fail the first time or stay afloat long enough to learn. so far ive stayed afloat a week and only lost $14
my trades are public etc. with dollar amount and all.

100 trades in a week eh. Sounds like you need to slow down. There's no such thing as long term scalping btw. You're looking at swing trading or position trading. Or even, if you want to get into forex etfs, investing perhaps.
Here's an idea for you. Look at a bunch of pairs on the daily chart only. Identify support and resistance on each pair. Put some basic MAs on. Pick a pair that you feel most confident going short or long.
Then place the trade. One trade only: short or long. Very small position. Don't look at the chart for a week (yeah that's gonna be hard...like cold turkey). When you look at it, try to set it up so that you're looking at it as of when you placed the trade. The reveal each daily bar one by one, and think, what would I have done that day, if I'd seen the chart. Would I have closed (for profit or for loss)?
It's a great way to see how the market outfoxes you, or at least, doesn't do what you expect it to most of the time.
Other than that, sounds like you've got a lot of reading to do. There are tons of good books on TA and trading more generally, forex trading, whatever.
Best of luck.

Thanks for the info.
I had meant long term vs scalping in general. guys trading 5 minute 15 minute charts vs 1 hr+ charts. doing a bunch of breakout trades vs longer term trend trading.

I hear alot of guys saying 50-60-100 pip gains. are these guys mainly only doing a couple trades a day. vs the guys who are getting mabye 10-20 pips and doing that 10+times a day. I have definately starting looking at the S&R stuff. i had no idea. watched a few webinars and started setting up the lines. also using stoch. indicator. 'urbanforex" youtube videos.
Looking into it i seem to feel more comfortable (identifying proper s&R) in the 1 hr charts...

As i said i am very new to it and learn every minute i watch/read/interpret.

The vast majority lose. Never forget that. There are those who make shitloads (according to themselves) but frankly I believe none of them, because where is the proof? Until I see proof I believe nobody.
What you can see, is a huge number of FF accounts that are new, and some that aren't. The vast majority just sell stuff because it's gone up a lot and buy stuff because it's gone down a lot. You're competing against really talented and bright individuals working for the major banks, with many many years of experience and access to far better information sources. Never forget that.
Really, this game is a hell of a lot harder than most people expect. I really think it's easier to become a doctor, or solicitor (lawyer), whatever, than it is to be a successful trader.
Bear that in mind if you're considering committing real chunks of time and capital to this endeavour.
Yes, 1hr is good, keep it simple, 200MAs, 100MAs are good on all timeframes.

at the moment i wont be committing large amounts of capital. 100 a month is the most i feel like 'wasting" if i have to.
I have more than enough time. My job only requires me to work about 10-15 minutes every hour lol. so i watch alot of charts/videos/read alot.

Mainly im trying to be familiar with the market. mabye in a year or 2 time ill be able to have a profitable(if by .01) system figured out.
During the next 2 years ill be finishing my BBA-Finance. as the goal is to get into some kind of banking/corporate finance. And i feel having years of work in learning the market would be very beneficial. if not just for the knowledge, then for the resume spruce. Nothing better for a trading style job then a portfolio that says you can trade.

If i figure out a system and make money sooner, so be it, but for now i am not utilizing that 100 bucks a month anywhere else and definately feel a difference from demo/live. The demo has no psychological value to it for me. its not my money. its not my profit or loss. but with my 50 buck live account. i start questioning myself every trade. making sure its the one i want(which how am i supposed to know if i barely know what is good lol).

wow. simply putting in S&R lines. and stoch. and my first trade turned 16 pips. 1 day trade. I bought it before i did the lines (would have been almsot 100 pips if i entered correctly. but i had blind entered lol. so i had to wait for the support to bump it up and then it pushed through the resistance(which was only 20 pips higher than my entry). it hit 19 pips profit. and then(work distracted me) and i looked down and saw it turning back down. and sold at 16 i believe.
Feels good to trade correctly and make a profit especially since normally that trade i would have gotten out down 10 pips when i got scared. But i held in trusting the system would hold true and it did.. definately a better feeling then trading blind and getting lucky.

long term vs scalping I'd say to each their own BUT I did start to doubt trading of of 1H and 4H charts like most day and swingtraders do (which is most traders anyway).
Why? Because one needs to catch much more pips trading on those time frames which is harder than catching small pips.

watching 4 and 1H yes but trading on those charts, well you are competing against big guys..

with small account perhaps you want to leverage it to the fullest? use this formula to figure out your positions size: balance/req margin for 1 lot+risk in pips

Committing large capital is not a good idea until you are absolutely sure about your success rate and performance. Granted trading on the market can, at times, be like getting on a rollercoaster and as for demo/live, no arguments there..