The open candle is something you sit through
Do not enter NAS100 or US30 while the 13:30 UTC candle is still forming. That candle runs stops on both sides of the overnight range. A scalp that has to be first will take both sides and call it activity. Activity is expensive here because each modify is a request. Wait until the candle has closed, then trade the direction that remains, with a stop you can say out loud before you click.
The stop rule does not relax because the open is fast. You still have 60 seconds from the fill. If you cannot name the stop, you are not ready for this open. Sign up on Venasri with a block on new index entries until that candle is done. The block will feel slow. Slow is the edge. The other side of the trade is the person who could not wait.
60 to 100 points, then one index only
A 15-point scratch stop does not survive the post-open spread. Use 60 to 100 points. At $1 per point per 1.00 lot, $500 of risk is about 8.33 lots at 60 points and 5.00 lots at 100 points. If your symbol pays a different dollar per point, recompute before you trust the lot. US30 and NAS100 are highly correlated. Holding both at full size is two $500 ideas that will lose together. Pick one until the first stop is no longer the opening drive.
A 200-point slide on 8.33 lots is about $1,666, a third of a $5,000 day. That is survivable once and fatal as a habit. Bot controls should refuse the second index and should refuse a lot whose point value times the stop exceeds $650, the top of the CTI band. The 1-step day is only $4,000, so the same 200-point accident is a larger share there.
Scalps die on the request cap before they die on direction
Two thousand server requests a day sounds huge until a trail updates on every point of NAS100 for an hour. The cap is shared with every other modify, including the initial stop you are legally required to place. If the cap is gone, you cannot adjust, and a CTI reviewer does not need the trade to be a loser to care. Place the structural stop, take a few partials, and stop editing.
News can print at the same hour as the cash open. Funded accounts cannot straddle that release in the two minutes before and the two minutes after. A data candle stacked on an opening candle is a reason to stay flat, not a reason to halve the stop and click faster. Slip still counts against the 5% day. There is no prize for being in the first tick.
Leave the open before it becomes the qualifying-day problem
Equity Guard near $4,250 on a $100,000 2-step account is the backstop if the settled candle was a trap. On 1-step use about $3,250. After two full index stops in one open, stop for the day. You still need three separate $500 days to satisfy the phase, and a ruined open is not one of them. Come back tomorrow. There is no time limit forcing a third attempt this afternoon.
Do not carry an index scalp into a weekend hold by accident. Weekend holding is allowed and is a different plan, with gap risk and swap. An index leftover plus a gold swing shares one 5% line. Flatten the scalp when the cash session is done. The static 10% floor is $10,000. A week of opening mistakes can walk there without a single spectacular loss. The guard is how that week stays a week and not a failed fee.
