gurucandidate You can afford not using stops if you are in a very liquid contract where options also have big volume. ES is one of these markets. Look at ivolatility.com for a ranking.
Interesting graph about YM, ES, NQ and ER2 compared over the last 5 days. See the divergence between NQ and ER... I think a good measure should take into account: - Multiple of Tick-Size Movement of the instrument (should be big). - 'Linearity' compared to other instruments.
I have added the ESTX50 and the DAX. The ESTX50 has made the biggest sell off followed by the DAX. Look also at the volume ESTX50 has huge volume also compared to the ES!