...is someone trading on 5M likely to be profitable on a weekly basis? If that's the case, surely trading on lower timeframes (with a strategy with a similar win%, reward-risk ratio to a strategy successful on a higher timeframe) is more profitable?
I get the feeling you're asking this because you want the quickest path to your aventador OP, because trust me, you're not the first person to ask this. Idk about this subreddit, but at least personally, I've had friends I've tried to mentor ask pretty much the exact same thing. Here's my take on it, obviously it's just an opinion so take it for what it's worth:
4h chart, I can turn a consistent profit every week, 5m or 1m? Fuck no.
Second attempt at live, I was working with a very small deposit at the highest leverage that my broker offers, and I wanted to catch small movements for quick profits within a small time frame so that I could at least reach a 5k balance before the end of the month. I succeeded, but not from scalping on the M1 chart. In fact I lost money trying to rely on scalping to carry me to that goal because I realized my strategy did not scale well below H1 and it was requiring WAY more time and effort for an ROI that did not justify those hours compared to more long term intraday trades. It has been far more profitable holding onto longer term trades that last for at least 1 hour than trying to scalp tiny 1-8 pip movements based on M1 chart analysis. I'm not saying I don't scalp though, I do, but I would never ever rely solely on scalping because it is, at best, 30-50 bucks in profit for 2-3 trades- and that's working with 1:1000 leverage and at least .30-.50 lot sizes. My first experience scalping resulted in 100 bucks in profit- .70 lot size, at 1:1000 leverage. I stayed up till like 1 am for an inflation figure because I was expecting to fall below market consensus; I was hitting the refresh button like mad in a vain attempt to maximize profits by catching the data drop RIGHT on market price. I had one hand on my mouse and my finger on my other hand hovering over a market execution order on the MT4 app. Couldn't sleep on the execution even with a tight SL cause I knew I was over-leveraged. Was it worth staying up late for a 100 bucks? No. I would rather analyze H1 or H4, make a a few trades, set my SL and TP, get some damn sleep and wake up to my account 100 bucks in the blue. Scalping on the M1 chart? Sit. At. Your. Desk. And. Don't. Move.
The strategy I work with necessitates a minimum 15 minute analysis on a pair. Calculating success chance on a long or short on a pair for confirmation based on data from M1 becomes irrelevant before I've even finished crunching the numbers that determine my success chance and odds for min/max-ing my SL and TP levels, because the time frame's just too damn short for me to be confident in my projections. Is it possible to make more money scalping than day trading, swing trading, and or position trading? Maybe, but in my opinion, you'd have to be a discretionary trader and or have an account with a true ECN Broker, or at least a broker that offers very tight spreads and with 0 commission fees (good luck finding a true ECN Broker, unless you've got A LOT of money to work with), and be willing to devote A LOT more time staring at charts than you would do with even just intra-day carries that last a few hours to make the ROI even comparable.
Scalping absolutely necessitates high volume trading, and unless you are THAT impatient to the point where your need for instant-gratification outweighs the pain from the ulcers you're going to get from from all that stress, I can't recommend it to anyone. Use it as a supplement to other methods, but just scalping? Eh. Again, it really depends on you and your strategy. I'm not saying you CAN'T make more money scalping, but just know that it is a lot harder than you might expect.