Scalping ES - how many ticks?

[oldtime]

Quote from tenthousandmen:

Hey, I'm the OP! You guys sure make threads a pleasure to read... very nice...:eek:

oh, ok, yeah, one tick

 

[syswizard]

Can someone please backtest this and we can put it to rest ?
Use a Donchian entry to get in (use 200 tick bars) - 4 higher highs in a row to go long, 4 lower lows to go short.
Exit rules:
3 tick stop order to take profits
2 tick stop loss order

Then try the same with a RANDOM ENTRY.
If you get a positive 1/2 tick per trade from either of these, I'll be surprised.

 

[oldtime]

Quote from syswizard:

Can someone please backtest this and we can put it to rest ?
Use a Donchian entry to get in (use 200 tick bars) - 4 higher highs in a row to go long, 4 lower lows to go short.
Exit rules:
3 tick stop order to take profits
2 tick stop loss order

Then try the same with a RANDOM ENTRY.
If you get a positive 1/2 tick per trade from either of these, I'll be surprised.

you aint going to get very far in the scalping business if your loss is tighter than your target

 

[syswizard]

Quote from oldtime:

you aint going to get very far in the scalping business if your loss is tighter than your target

I don't dispute that. I am guessing the above strategy will win only 30% of the time at the best and likely not to be profitable. Reasons: frequent losses due to tight stop and using a fixed profit target....which eliminates any big wins.
The age old issue with systems trading is: how to determine the optimal stop loss. No doubt the win% will go up if you set the stop loss to 2x the profit target. But that doesn't guarantee a winner.
This strategy as written is likely to be a low risk one....but that doesn't mean you can't lose a heckuva lot of money over time with it.