One additional comment: It is all about expectancy. At R:R = 0, expectancy is 0, at R:R = infinite, expectancy is 0 too. Somewhere in between is a max. It is usually not at R:R of 5:1 or 10:1. It depends on the probability function, the tail, the perturbation function, the drift.... In day trading, under certain boundary conditions, @volpri is closer to max expectancy than PTJ. Of course in most cases, even in day trading, he is not, but positive non the less. i.e., he is legit.
volpri... can you expand on what you mean here? >>> Are you looking for very small Hurst cycles to help your scalping? Low to Low, High to Low, etc. ?
An update: I have been experimenting with various SL. It was interesting, @SimpleMeLike was right, the market likes to take out my hard SL, 3 in a row is common unless SL is really far away! Most of the trades I executed with a pre-determined R:R of 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3 were taken out at the SL level! No SL is not an answer either, because 1 run away trade (like those Monday) would have taken out all of the daily profit and then some. Averaging down works until it does not work, and when it stops working, things get ugly very quickly. IMHO, it takes special skills to not have it turned ugly. My compromise: I now use mental stops and don't average down. Mental stops require iron wills. I also limit my daily trades to < 15 a day forcing me to be more selective. So far, positive expectancy after several days executing this strategy (managed to be profitable today). But only time will tell.
What's the difference between a hard stop and an iron willed mental stop? A hard stop is like a bodyguard who will physically remove you from danger, no questions asked. An iron-willed mental stop is like a personal trainer that sometimes needs a bit of a pep talk to get things goin. Why not set a hard stop at your mental stop location? Maybe a rule surrounding PA setups that forces you to ALWAYS exit when a condition is met would be more helpful. When do YOU know, FOR SURE, that you've misread things?
Excellent that you are still profitable on such down days. If you can stay alive during this environment, then during the days of rallies, you can likely get back to very good profits. Would your PnL look better if you were able to short? For day trading, sometimes there is absolutely nothing to take if all you can do is go long.