Ahhhh, the long sought after 1 point stop money management technique!
More power to those claiming that it works for them, but I could never get a 1 point stop to work for me (or a .75 , 2pt., or any other number) stop to work for me. I think you are really stacking the odds against yourself if you have a stop that is too close since you almost always have to swallow the spread to enter and exit a trade. Furtheremore, oftentimes the tight stop will take you out right before price jumps back to your entry, or even worse, towards a profit that you now missed. I've basically come to the conclusion that the purpose of the ES is to take all of the money of the tight stop people.
I've found it much easier to have a wider stop based upon a multiple of the ATR of the ES on a 1-min chart. I typically use 4 x ATR, which right now is around a 4 point stop. HOWEVER, this is more of a catastrophic stop (OK, so a mini-catastrophic stop since 4 points really isn't that much). This hard stop only gets stopped out every couple hundred trades. Most of the times I'm scalping for a couple points here, a couple points there, or maybe just a tick--It all depends! Sure, I take 1 point loss all the time (or sometime 2 points, or sometimes 1 tick). However, its only after the market has confirmed that I'm wrong based upon price action.
At least for me personally, and I suspect many traders, it is an emotional and mental crutch to rely too heavily upon a stop for exit. Its as if one wants to enter a trade when requirements xyz are fulfilled, then you can just sit back with your 1 point stop and 3 point exit and wait for something to happen. I only became profitable when I focussed less upon some systematic entry with rigid stop/profit objectives and more upon being flexible in watching the price action play out. Each trading moment is unique, so you have to constantly adapte, assess, and possibly change your opinion/bias about market direction. Nobody ever said it was easy!
More power to those claiming that it works for them, but I could never get a 1 point stop to work for me (or a .75 , 2pt., or any other number) stop to work for me. I think you are really stacking the odds against yourself if you have a stop that is too close since you almost always have to swallow the spread to enter and exit a trade. Furtheremore, oftentimes the tight stop will take you out right before price jumps back to your entry, or even worse, towards a profit that you now missed. I've basically come to the conclusion that the purpose of the ES is to take all of the money of the tight stop people.
I've found it much easier to have a wider stop based upon a multiple of the ATR of the ES on a 1-min chart. I typically use 4 x ATR, which right now is around a 4 point stop. HOWEVER, this is more of a catastrophic stop (OK, so a mini-catastrophic stop since 4 points really isn't that much). This hard stop only gets stopped out every couple hundred trades. Most of the times I'm scalping for a couple points here, a couple points there, or maybe just a tick--It all depends! Sure, I take 1 point loss all the time (or sometime 2 points, or sometimes 1 tick). However, its only after the market has confirmed that I'm wrong based upon price action.
At least for me personally, and I suspect many traders, it is an emotional and mental crutch to rely too heavily upon a stop for exit. Its as if one wants to enter a trade when requirements xyz are fulfilled, then you can just sit back with your 1 point stop and 3 point exit and wait for something to happen. I only became profitable when I focussed less upon some systematic entry with rigid stop/profit objectives and more upon being flexible in watching the price action play out. Each trading moment is unique, so you have to constantly adapte, assess, and possibly change your opinion/bias about market direction. Nobody ever said it was easy!
