How many ticks per contract are you averaging?

Across the past 30 sessions, I'm averaging exactly 1 tick per contract and this makes me feel I'm running way too close to the edge.

 

1 tick is awesome if you are throwing 50, 100, 500, 1,000 cars at the ES...what do you do?

 

DO NOT listen to him obviously... i would say that you are probably skating on the edge as you say in your post. If you are feeling there is a problem it would be best to pause and re-examine your past trades to see where you can improve your per trade profit margin. Plowing ahead with more contracts ((i.e. increasnow's logic)) is NOT advisable.

 

how many pips or ticks is a better question?

 

hey brocklanders...of course I am not suggesting he do what I mentioned...just saying it is awesome if you are throwing that volume at the ES...best to you!

 

I don't know about that, Dude. I suppose it's good if you're gunning for a few ticks at a time and have a 90%+ accuracy rate.

I'm looking for 2-10+ points at a time depending on how that market's reading. I'd say that I'm profitable because of those few trades that I take and hold based off higher timeframes.

What brings my average down are those dumb gambles. I try to get cute and play retracements on a sharp drop, or take profit on a short, miss the entry on the retracement, and then short 1 point above the low thinking it'll break even though time and sales is saying otherwise. Sometimes I'll get pissed off and hit the reverse button but that only works when the market's truly running away. And of course, there's holding a loser in surprise situations.

Despite all this, my average winner is larger than my average loser, my largest winner is larger than my largest loser and my win% is 52%.

If I JUST STOP ACTING LIKE A LOSER and take those cherry trades off the high timeframes and add to them on retracements, I'd be sitting well. The impulse for action screws up the trading list and the stats.

Sorry for ranting. I would like to get to one full point per contract. Just wanted to know what the veterans are batting.

 

There is no one-size-fits-all answer.
As a scalper, capturing 1 tick every few seconds times multiple contracts will keep you far away from unemployment lines. Clearly the OP is not using this trading style/technique. Without knowing the OPs style/technique OR expectation, there is no "better" number of ticks or pips. The argument can also be made that there is no "better" number of ticks or pips in ANY case... there is only YOUR PnL panel.

Osorico

PS. Increasenow has no clue of what he says.

 

... about pretty much anything.

 

I average about 20 YM points per session, with a mechanical system. Were you asking about points per trade, or per session?

 

It's the size of your average trade per contract. Let's say you're trading only one lot at a time.

On the first trade you get 5 points. Your average trade is 5 points per contract.

On the second trade you get 0 points. Your average trade is now 2.5 points per contract.

On the third trade, you get 8 points. Your average trade is now 4.3 points per contract.

I'd say that if you're a microscalper going for only a few ticks at a time, this number is irrelevant. If you're looking to catch major intraday waves, then in the long term I interpret it as a measure of how efficient and selective you are.

For example, today was a good day. I got 30 ES points trading 1-3 contracts at a time depending on the strength and probability of the move. But in the end, my average was only 3 ticks/contract. This is because there were a few trades where I was chasing price, reversing at the top, not getting out properly, etc.