I commend you doing one tick, I never tried that low, but often only make one tick cause can't get out at plus 2 or 3 ticks. I been scalping over 30 years(never got the hang of day trading till recently) and normally target 2 ticks if I couldn't get my price in some many seconds I give up the tick(automation) and targets can get as large as 4 ticks if Dome time and Sales is showing large orders being executed, 100 lot order seldom shows 100 but it is piece meal. I average down on all my trades, when manual never use stops but automation uses over 4 points and only as Catastrophic stops, often times fast market conditions will cause much greater loses, but part of the fun. Most of automation systems been built with breakeven plus one tick in mind, so when ave down, all target area of original plus one tick, so if I got n at minus 5 ticks and get out at BE+1=plus 6 ticks, my numbers are not as good as yours and they shouldn't be as you targeting only one tick. Usually more you target, winning percentages go down but the losing percentages should stay approx. the same, and breakeven plus 1 tick rises. I don't include these "BE+1" as a win, cause stats I keep are I want them to be uniform of how I made system. Most of what I concentrate is how not to lose, but I do have some monster loses cause by ave down, but overall do better than putting all on one time. Most of what I do is time based, has to be completed in so many seconds and not minutes. Now have a scalping/day trading model am manually trading, dump half at scalp targets and try to hang on for bigger profits, this seldom works and I miss out on the automatic 3-4 ticks. But have gotten some nice wins in Crude and Euro. ES is choppy when choppy and trends nearly half day when trending. I recently started using Momentum indicator to score trend better, most should know when it is near zero is chop, but a slow moving trend can also show chop so this is where you have to be a where. So if you doing reversals on both sides during chop, and after trend change momentum indicator showing chop trend, have to extend couple ticks beyond rising highs to short. Not all systems are based on the underlying, cash Index stocks work as well and sometimes better as cash going one way and futures the other in same trend, so you can get a freebie snap back. Am sure large firms been doing this for years. I watch S/R much, trendlines, but more of how price is getting near them, want to see smaller bars as in ranges and when they close if price pushes through, is it a solid breakout or did larger force push to trigger stops and I be waiting lower to offer losses to retail breakout traders. Congrats. I only do the regular coffee at Starbucks, am only doing 900 calories a day to lose more weight, down 225lbs so far.
TY informative and funny. Ave down saved me until it wipes me out. Figured i cannot win 2 or more tics unless I can consistently win 1. If I get 1 tick real quick then I move my target to 2, sometimes 3. Beats working for a living! I need 83% to break even and volume to win. LATER
Hi TraderEX Are all your trades one tick ? How do you keep going after one tick ? Is it like you take profit on one tick for one contract and let the other contract continue ? What platform do you use ? And what data feed ? Thank you
70% OR SO are 1. If the trade goes rapidly my way, I move my target up to 2, rarely 3. I use 3 contracts to enter and close all three together by setting a bracket. TY
Tradovate of course. Platform and unlimited round turns for $199/month. Data now costs $2/month, up from $1 (100% increase-LOL) $7/month If you want the Dom-(I do not use it) pay and play simple to start. Difficult to profit. TRADOVATE plays a big part of my success when I execute > 200 rt's/month. Saving 60 cents on 1000 is 600 for me and keeps me much closer than the 2 months I gave it to GF. No bogus sales calls either. Great customer service fron Andrew and his team. Makes cents to me LOL TY
Seriously, I'm not bashing, I'm just asking what you do and you really don't make sense. First you target one tick, now you're saying sometimes 2 to 3 ticks?
I agree with you. There are a few things that worry me: No clear tradeplan that can be followed strictly. Average win is only $25.68, that’s not enough to survive. Stop can never be 1 tick, but even at 2 ticks the loss is already bigger then the average profit. Trading for 1-2 ticks confirms for me that it is rather gambling then trading. You should always keep in mind that the execution can be 1 tick worse then in papertrading, which takes away half of the net profits yiou were expecting. 80% win rate needed to make money???
But I also don't see how 80% win rate would turn a profit. It would require greater than 90%. The flip flop between 1 tick target but oh maybe sometimes I'll hold for 2 to 3, shows me that the whole 1 tick thing didn't work out and now he's changing things around a bit. I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but after all these post, I still can't get a clear answer as to his method.
I interpret that he is trading 1 tick with a 3-tick SL...I think that the confusion is to help breakthrough to most traders that one tick based on volume is a good strategy with the right broker which is the 2-fold purpose of this thread. Look at it's title... If Handle cut his posts in half, I still would have to print them out... ES