Does anyone make a living scalping just a couple of ticks (2-5) trading the ES? I know one could add contracts , but curious if anyone has this approach.

Sure.

But what's your stop loss set at and what is your risk:reward ratio set at?

If you got 10 trades as winners of 3 ticks = 30 ticks, BUT, if your loss is about 10-15-20 ticks on the next trade, you are doomed in the long run.

tulanch 

Does anyone make a living scalping just a couple of ticks (2-5) trading the ES? I know one could add contracts , but curious if anyone has this approach.

Take what i write with grain of salt because I'm not making living of trading yet. May be algo can do it when market is on the run, If you do it yourself I found it mentally draining.

My approach is 5 ticks first Target and 10 ticks the second target. SL is 10 ticks. I trade 2 - 3 hours a day after FT job. If i sit longer I can't focus.

I assume you are learning to read the DOM

Yes this is DOM trading. I see/observe/feel an edge and it typically pops. As with all trading, sometimes it runs, sometimes it goes up 2-5 ticks and races back, sometimes I am wrong. But it seems possible, with focus, real focus to manually get in and get out with a small profit or BE. My question is not about strategy, its truly about making money at this with such an approach, small profits considering commissions and taxes. Does anyone make money with a manual, small tick profit scalping system?

It can be done if you take dozens of trades and have a strict stop loss limit. You can see some of these traders on the Jigsaw Leaderboard - look for the ones who are taking upwards of 100 trades per day: https://www.jigsawtrading.com/leaderboard/

My opinion, however, as a scalper myself, is that you need to trade multiple contracts with at least one contract trailing. I use a multiple of 3 formula: 2 contracts take 15 ticks on the NQ, 1 contract will trail at a breakeven stop while continuing to move the stop in your favor as the market moves. This way if you're lucky enough to hit a runner, a percentage of your trades will earn more than just a scalp of 15 ticks.

The problem is the initial stop. You need to understand the instrument you're trading and what the limits are for a stop. That's where order flow really helps. If the numbers suggest that it might be a small retracement, you can stay in the trade. If you get a big absorption all of a sudden, bail out. Of course, there are a lot of situations in between, but as I said, you need to understand how your instrument trades.

In the NQ and ES, cumulative delta and volume delta are good numbers to keep a constant eye on. If you don't understand order flow and use it every day, then scalping is not an option. You have to use order flow.