OU Reversion — London Kill Zone: A LIVE mean-reversion Strategy for NQ+ES
Fade the >2.5 sigma stretch back to the mean during the London kill zone. Works on BOTH NQ and ES.
Market: NQ+ES Timeframe: 15-min Session: London KZ (02:00-05:00 ET)
How it works
During the London kill zone, when price stretches >=2.5 standard deviations from its 60-bar mean in a ranging market (ADX < 25), it tends to snap back. We fade the extreme, targeting the mean.
- Entry: Price >=2.5 sigma from the 60-bar mean during 02:00-05:00 ET, ADX < 25 (range regime).
- Exit: Revert to the mean; ATR-based stop beyond the extreme.
- Risk: 0.25% of account per trade, 1 micro.
Backtested performance
This is a cross-market edge — profitable on both NQ and ES, which is the strongest sign a setup isn't curve-fit to one market.
NQ (Nasdaq 100) — the numbers
| Profit Factor | 1.24 |
| Sharpe Ratio | 2.28 |
| Win Rate | 44% |
| Max Drawdown | -1.8% |
| Net Return (1 micro, $50k) | +2.9% |
| Trades | 97 |
| Years Tested | 8 |
| Losing Years | 0 |
ES (S&P 500) — the numbers
| Profit Factor | 1.30 |
| Sharpe Ratio | 2.27 |
| Win Rate | 50% |
| Max Drawdown | -3.3% |
| Net Return (1 micro, $50k) | +4.2% |
| Trades | 113 |
| Years Tested | 10 |
| Losing Years | 0 |
When it works
- Quiet, ranging London sessions (the norm)
- Sharp stretch away from the mean that overshoots
- Confirmed on BOTH NQ and ES — a genuinely robust edge
When it fails
- London trend days that keep extending (news-driven)
- ADX filter keeps it out of trends by design — fewer trades then
- Gap opens that don't revert
Why it has an edge
Two independent markets (NQ + ES) agree on this edge — the strongest sign it isn't overfit.
How we validate it
Every Trade Setup is backtested on 8+ years of Sierra Chart NQ/ES data with realistic costs (2-tick slippage + $0.74/side commission), sized at 0.25% risk on a $50k account, and stress-tested per calendar year. Micros only (MNQ/MES). The 14 kill-zone Trade Setups were mined from a 10-year ES+NQ session sweep and are scored by Van Tharp SQN. Signals are tracked live every session.
See this strategy live
This is one of the Trade Setups running on our automated account right now. Get the exact rules, the full 8-year statistics, and the weekly forward-test results — and see every LIVE strategy on one page.
→ View all LIVE strategies · Join free by email
Educational content only, not financial advice. Backtested results are hypothetical and do not guarantee future performance. Futures carry substantial risk and most short-term traders lose money. Test on your own data and trade your own plan.