Judging from the results it might be statistically more interesting if one through ten were each their own individual category. You see how lopsided the one contract result is. And then to also to compare the results to experience levels would be interesting. Almost everyone with under a years experience will be trading one contract on average. Although, as I have learned from reading this forum, that is in many ways more difficult than trading several.

one contract for me. (two rarely) Under one year in futures.

Interesting thread - a shame that it seems to have run dry so soon!

To determine my appropriate contract size, I first quantify how much of my trading capital I am willing to risk per trade, say 1.5% as an example. I then decide on how many ticks my stop loss should be - let's say 8 ticks (max - prefer 4 ticks if watching order flow). From the above information, it is quite simple to work out how many contracts to trade on the assumption that your stop loss gets hit and you lose 1.5%.

I therefore normally trade 5 contracts. I write the above with the ES in mind as it's a thick market so generally it's ok to get fills even in to the hundreds of contracts.

Would appreciate comments on this approach, as to me it seems one of the most simple aspects of trading the ES!

TheBoy

During RTH you can clip 1000 contracts with no slippage, the ES is a beast. From my observations clipping around 150+ during RTH has the potential to change immediate price behaviour. By this I mean others will note and react to that size. For example if a 500 lot goes off and the guy takes nothing but heat you know he and others will likely puke soon. Large trades at prop firms typically clip 50s and 100s with a 1000+ limit mainly for queue position purposes. .