loop forever

InteractiveBrockers
paperTrading account
ES futures

automated startegy:
target + a tick
stop - a tick
reverse on close

set it up and let it go for a while...

I was expecting about 50/50 win/loss trades.

Not so...

I get pretty consistenty almost 3:1 losses

why is that?
 
Quote from kiwi1:


I was expecting about 50/50 win/loss trades. Not so... I get pretty consistenty almost 3:1 losses why is that?

The bid/ask spread is what's killing it.
 
I don’t know how IB handles these kinds of orders with paper trading, but this is how it works in the real world…

It’s because your limit order is placed in the queue of orders at that price, and the market must trade enough at that price to hit your limit order in the queue.
But as soon as any order is filled at the stop price, your stop (market) order becomes a live market order, and you are taken out of your position at a tick loss.

So this makes it much more likely that your stop will be activated before your profit target is hit.
 
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