Quote from sandygray66:
If you're going for a 0.5 profit target, what size of stop loss do you have to use? If only 0.5 SL, just market noise will take you out quite quite often.
I worked with a 0.5PT/1.5 SL for a couple months. Had a 90+% win rate in backtesting (which yields a positive expectancy). However, a loss wipes out 3 wins. So, when a loss did occur, the psychological hit sometimes made it tough for me to take the next trade knowing that the 3:1 risk/reward ratio was there (even with the confidence of 90% win rate).
So on paper, while a method with a 90% win rate using 0.5 PT/1.5 SL can make money, I found it difficult to implement consistently. Invetiably, the trades I'd hesitate about (usually after a loss) would then win, and my real win rate didn't meet the theoretical win rate.
I didn't say I do or did this. But I do know a guy making a living at it. He has a very tight stop loss probably less than a point. If you are using momentum then price SHOULDN'T go backwards very much if at all during a push through S/R. Hesitation will kill a trade no matter what method you use anyway.