Once or twice a week I think. Every Thursday is storage report day, so it's usually choppy. Currently NG often makes decent moves several hours before regular market session (9:30 am NY). When market decides to become choppy, it can do it even during the regular session.
Small range is ok to me as my SL is also smaller. Targeting 15-25 ticks of scalping per trade is still doable in current NG market. Choppy move doesn't necessarily be defined as a chaotic move. During choppy days, I can see major market players feel comfortable taking stops in either sides using all sort of tricks (sometimes predictable common traps). I think when they haven't decided the direction, they kill time playing this game.
Choppy markets occur definitely on lower volumes, especially on holidays as example or times without important news. You can expect larger trends on important news when volatility increases a lot. Or at midday when traders are having their lunch there are more choppy moves than at NYSE open or last hour of stocks trading. When there are important earnings releases of higher market caps after hours you can also expect stronger moves and non-choppy markets here. Or month-end rebalancing also has an effect and can cause larger moves trought different asset classes. In addition in summer when there is a lot of holiday vacation the chances of more choppy moves are higher because of the lower volume. Or also after Christmas on last week of the year and then for the first week for the new year, because many market participants are still not on trading desk (to cause more market moves, so those moves are missing thus creating more choppy markets). That way you can calculate a bit beforehand when the chances of choppy markets are higher or less. I hope this helps you.
