u/P1zzak1ngs

A lot of traders never actually check how much drawdown their winning trades really use before hitting take profit.

Go back through your last 50–100 winning trades and track:

• how far price went against you before winning
• how much of your stop loss was actually used
• whether the trade still hit TP after that drawdown

The goal is to backtest YOUR strategy, YOUR entries, and YOUR trading style to find the smallest stop your setups actually need.

Example:

Say your normal stop loss is 10 ticks.

After reviewing 100 winning trades, you realize around 80 of them only went 4 ticks into drawdown before reversing and hitting take profit.

So instead of automatically using a 10 tick stop every trade, maybe you test a tighter stop around 5 ticks.

Yes, your win rate may drop a little because some trades need more room.

But if your stop gets cut in half while your target stays the same:

• a 1:2 trade can become a 1:4 trade
• your reward increases massively compared to the smaller drop in win rate

For example:

• winning 100 trades at 2R = 200R
• winning 80 trades at 4R = 320R

This only works if your setups consistently do not need full stop size. Some strategies absolutely need wider stops and more room to work.

This also lets you:

• use more contracts while risking the same dollar amount
• scale out of positions easier
• grow accounts faster without increasing max risk

The goal is NOT to blindly use tiny stops.

The goal is to use real trade data to optimize risk and find the stop size your strategy actually needs.

A lot of traders never actually check how much drawdown their winning trades really use before hitting take profit.

Go back through your last 50–100 winning trades and track:

• how far price went against you before winning
• how much of your stop loss was actually used
• whether the trade still hit TP after that drawdown

The goal is to backtest YOUR strategy, YOUR entries, and YOUR trading style to find the smallest stop your setups actually need.

Example:

Say your normal stop loss is 10 ticks.

After reviewing 100 winning trades, you realize around 80 of them only went 4 ticks into drawdown before reversing and hitting take profit.

So instead of automatically using a 10 tick stop every trade, maybe you test a tighter stop around 5 ticks.

Yes, your win rate may drop a little because some trades need more room.

But if your stop gets cut in half while your target stays the same:

• a 1:2 trade can become a 1:4 trade
• your reward increases massively compared to the smaller drop in win rate

For example:

• winning 100 trades at 2R = 200R
• winning 80 trades at 4R = 320R

This only works if your setups consistently do not need full stop size. Some strategies absolutely need wider stops and more room to work.

This also lets you:

• use more contracts while risking the same dollar amount
• scale out of positions easier
• grow accounts faster without increasing max risk

The goal is NOT to blindly use tiny stops.

The goal is to use real trade data to optimize risk and find the stop size your strategy actually needs.

A lot of traders never actually check how much drawdown their winning trades really use before hitting take profit.

Go back through your last 50–100 winning trades and track:

• how far price went against you before winning
• how much of your stop loss was actually used
• whether the trade still hit TP after that drawdown

The goal is to backtest YOUR strategy, YOUR entries, and YOUR trading style to find the smallest stop your setups actually need.

Example:

Say your normal stop loss is 10 ticks.

After reviewing 100 winning trades, you realize around 80 of them only went 4 ticks into drawdown before reversing and hitting take profit.

So instead of automatically using a 10 tick stop every trade, maybe you test a tighter stop around 5 ticks.

Yes, your win rate may drop a little because some trades need more room.

But if your stop gets cut in half while your target stays the same:

• a 1:2 trade can become a 1:4 trade
• your reward increases massively compared to the smaller drop in win rate

For example:

• winning 100 trades at 2R = 200R
• winning 80 trades at 4R = 320R

This only works if your setups consistently do not need full stop size. Some strategies absolutely need wider stops and more room to work.

This also lets you:

• use more contracts while risking the same dollar amount
• scale out of positions easier
• grow accounts faster without increasing max risk

The goal is NOT to blindly use tiny stops.

The goal is to use real trade data to optimize risk and find the stop size your strategy actually needs.

I marked key levels like PDH, PDL, ORB, and also swing points that had high volume. Then I just waited for price to come back to one of those levels, tap it, and close back on the same side.

After that, I checked volume — if it was high, I took the trade. In this case it was a short.

This setup shows up pretty much every day.

For risk, I started at $500 per trade with a $1500 goal. Once the account hit +$2000, I dropped risk to $300. The closer I got to passing, the more I reduced risk.