My Simple "9:30AM Candle" Scalping Strategy (Backtested 1000 Times)
Loses money
No edge after realistic trading costs
- trades tested
- 3,979
- per trade after costs
- -2.87bp
- winners
- 31%
- years of data
- 15.9
Mark the high and low of the first 5-minute candle after the 9:30 New York open, then on the 1-minute chart wait for a candle to close beyond that range. Enter on the retest of the broken level when the retest candle shows rejection (weak price action for shorts, strong for longs), stop beyond the entry candle, target at least 2R, trading only the first 90 minutes.
The exact rules we tested
- 01Instrument: SPX | Signal timeframe: 1m | Direction: both
- 02Session: 09:30-16:00 (exchange tz), flat at session end
- 03No new entries after 11:00
- 04At most 1 trade(s) per day
- 05LONG sequence: 1. close crosses above or5.high THEN 2. ((low <= or5.high) OR (low within 3bp of or5.high)) AND (close > or5.high) AND (close > open) (within 30 bars)
- 06SHORT sequence: 1. close crosses below or5.low THEN 2. ((high >= or5.low) OR (high within 3bp of or5.low)) AND (close < or5.low) AND (close < open) (within 30 bars)
- 07Entry: market at next bar open
- 08Stop: signal bar low/high
- 09Target: 2.0R (risk-multiple of stop)