i read in another thread the member @Laissez Faire said buy at open , sell at close how does that works with 10 sma
Just because you have run simulations for many years doesn’t mean anything at all objectively since only you know what went into them. The fact of the matter is that if you run insanely high leverage and the market goes in your favor you make basically infinite returns. Is it easy? No. Can it be done? Yes. I get the feeling that you attribute to much of the outcome to what the market does. What the market does or has potential to give is meaningless, since the only factor you have any control over in trading is yourself. I could sit down in front of my charts and with hindsight be able to spot infinite opportunities where I could had made a big killing. This doesn’t mean that other traders took those opportunities at the time, but THAT doesn’t mean it wasn’t possible. The market gives you endless opportunities everyday! If you had the skill and will you could sit down and design systems for every possible scenario and die before you ever had the chance to scrape the surface.
I haven't read the whole thread so apologies if I am repeating someone. Your requests are not unreasonable, but this is not the best way to learn. You would be relying on someone else's conclusions with no idea how they reached them or how reliable they are. A far better way is to get some backtesting s/w and data and see for yourself how various strategies work out. You can see directly the effect varying your stop loss has on P/L. If you plan on being a discretionary trader, there is no substitute for screen time. For what its worth, which may be nothing, here are some suggestions. The most common errors I see are trying to scalp, ie trade on too short a timeframe, and overtrading for account size. I feel that you need about $20,000 in account equity per ES contract. I know, your broker will let you daytrade for $500 a contract. Good luck with that. The basic principle of daytrading is to filter for trend in the next highest timeframe and trade pullbacks against that. If you are trading off 5 minute bars, you assess the trend on the 60 and only trade in that direction. Newbies often get caught up in trying to trade countertrend but it's a good way to get your ass handed to you unless you really know what you're doing. Stops are for emergencies. Normally you should be out of a bad trade well before your stop is hit. If the trade is not confirming the reason for the entry, you get out. You can always buy it back. The basic setups for daytrading generally involve opening bars and ranges, gap filling, significant highs and lows and pullbacks. Personally, I think a newbie is best trading once a day, twice at the most. You only want to trade the very best setups because, as a newbie, you may not have discipline to blow out bad trades. Trading on a five minute chart, I would say 2 or 3 ES points is a good trade. The real money is made by holding them however and looking for a big move. The main goal of the first half year or so is not to blow out your account. Breaking even is not a bad outcome. This is the hardest easy way to make money you can find. It will damage you not only financially but psychologically.
for day trading, my ES stop loss is about 10 to 12 ticks. reward risk ratio > 2.5:1. ES day range has shrinked since early July. So it is getting more challenging to trade ES.