Yes - you said. And as I said in my initial reply to you, that's why you have the problem, and is what you need to change. It doesn't work for you because the way you're setting it is stopping you out 80% of the time, so you need to learn how to set stop-losses appropriate for the type, size, volatility and duration of trading you're doing. Every reply you've had, so far, is telling you more or less the same thing. Unfortunately, it isn't something you want to hear.
Riding the ES with a $100 stop is like trying to cross the sea with a sailboat that capsizes on every whitecap. Using a 1% stop loss is good. Having a position that is to large to give it adequate wiggle room and still use a 1% stop is greed. Your better off sizing down to say 100-200 shares max of the SPY, so that you can stay in the game more than 5 minutes.
There are strategies for just about anything dealing with numbers which is what hedging is all about, but I am certainly not going to discuss how to do so as it taken my years to get risk way low, but not 1% low. And often times the quantity is not available or way too expensive and better to go into ETF options to hedge futures which in turn is hedging stocks. Most hedging is done by professional traders whether they can read charts is another thing....but I been hedging very long time, and if you know how to well, where you get in matters the least.
Oh? You have a better way? If you are already a big winning trader with a good no stop-loss way that "works", please share a little... ____ With 10k you have a practice account on which to try develop a trading edge. This is your time to try and develop a winning edge and reasonable risk control. If you personally know a winning trader, I suggest you ask him for help.
Stop losses can and do get blown out by gaps or volatility, especially in futures. In 08' and 11' there was hell to pay with only using stop losses. Your trades won't execute in a volatile event. FOP's are cheap even at the money so there isn't really a reason not to use them if someone is so inclined to protect their portfolio.
Yes, but you wind up paying an insurance premium every day against a once in a blue moon event. And when that event occurs you may very well be on the right side of the market or not in the market at all. I'm not saying that precaution is of no value. Hedging with options may be worthwhile for certain institutional investors. But for the retail trader properly placed stops should suffice. Additionally, I think you will find that the volatile events to which you refer are almost always preceded by indications telling you that you are on the wrong side of the market(earthquakes and the like excluded). And if the trader can not read those indications, stops, options, prayers or anything else won't help him.