I been scalping profitably since 1991 and started averaging down 1998, never ever thought it would take me another 7 years to learn how to average down well enough, and for the amount of time to overcome emotions but more importantly to do enough back testing and study of price, almost any time I post I do this, always recommend for others not to do so. I kept at it for the challenge, like climbing some mountain, I got the thrill long ago of being able to do so and now just second habit.
But what many don't understand about averaging down, it is not just putting in limits so many ticks below original entry that is involved, it is a total evolution of thousands of hours, it be like putting together a nine foot statue and use one milliliter pieces of clay and you using tweezers to get to the solutions of when and how to apply averaging down. As I have gotten much older now, my filters has increased so probabilities of the past has had to become insanely higher for any system to generate a signal. I require signals based on the past fourteen years to be at least 90% probable before I even consider viable, scores of data to see how price performed tick by tick, my risk management "unit" tossed in and another set of tests to look for improvements. It can get rid of obvious bad setups(less than 90% now that tighter requirements required), will it get rid of three plus losses in a row, no it won't, but what I have learned from cycles, they happen and no amount of testing is going to get rid of losing trades. I use to average down 8 more levels than original entry and getting 3 full loses would take me 2-3 months before getting new equity highs, went back to back testing to find a happy zone to do less but keep 75% of the extra gains so now when there is 2 full losses in a row, and only doing half of the extra entries has bought down recover to 2 weeks.
And one of the tests I have repeatedly have done is "where will system be taken to the cleaners", we live in a world where you must have insurance, I always keep on OTM Put options for Black Swan, I trade with 500-1000% more than lowest brokers' margins. So in a very light way, I hedge scalping as well as Long term, yea it hurts a little of profits, but it is the smart way in my thinking.
One should never think about the money but think about probabilities instead. Work way past beyond what the 99% do, or you won't be playing at all when you average down. Is it worth it? Jury still out considering how much time I spent in terms of money, but the thrill that I accomplished it, yea it was worth it. Yea, did make me a better chartist, too.
And most systems are very robust, any symbol and any timeframe including monthlies if I want to scalp those, price is price overall, little changes for a few cause of decimal point.
