robster970
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Why don't you just take the grief out of it by using price closing below the 20MA or something like that until you get better at sitting on your hands?
i honestly think the hardest thing to do is let winners run
Why don't you just take the grief out of it by using price closing below the 20MA or something like that until you get better at sitting on your hands?
There are some great trends at the moment in GU/EU pairs and others?
What would you say are the current market conditions? DO you mean choppy price action or too volatile whipping back and forth taking stops?
Today's price action is better for my style of trading – I use 15min time frame, sometimes 1h.
Yesterday and few days back it was too choppy to my liking (going back and forth and taking stops every so often), so I tried to take small profits or cut the losses. I couldn't run profits for too long. Could it be it's something to do with holidays, some important levels, Yen indecision etc. - I don't know. I pay attention to fundamentals, but mainly follow the charts without too much bias.
IMO A picture (chart) is worth a thousand words. So when I see lots of candles with small bodies and massive wicks I classify that as a difficult market to trade and sometimes stay out of it or try to do a bit of scalping.
tried forex with the 10 ema...but found my own stop adjustment better. i'll check out the 20; i believe you use it for ES?
robster970
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I do indeed on H4. Works nicely for me. Took the heat out of exiting for me.
e2a - I'll explain what happened to me. Basically I was going through this period where I was intraday and H4 based swing trading but then getting really mixed about when to exit (i.e. I was applying what I would do on intrady to H4). This basically meant that my swing trading was nowhere near as profitable as it could have been.
So Kimosabby joined in a thread I started and basically said, "What gets you in, get's you out". I use PA on H4 to get me in. I now use PA on H4 to get me out. The 20MA break is kind of an alarm to tune into either getting in or getting out. I now just don't mix up intraday and swing trading.
e2a - I'll explain what happened to me. Basically I was going through this period where I was intraday and H4 based swing trading but then getting really mixed about when to exit (i.e. I was applying what I would do on intrady to H4). This basically meant that my swing trading was nowhere near as profitable as it could have been.
So Kimosabby joined in a thread I started and basically said, "What gets you in, get's you out". I use PA on H4 to get me in. I now use PA on H4 to get me out. The 20MA break is kind of an alarm to tune into either getting in or getting out. I now just don't mix up intraday and swing trading.
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As I mentioned earlier – a picture is worth a thousand words.
This is an example of my today's Cable trade. I managed to move stop 3 times. Fourth stop is based on target as per definition of a double top pattern.
PS Haven't paid too much attention to the indicators (they are there to make the picture look nicer)
This is an example of my today's Cable trade. I managed to move stop 3 times. Fourth stop is based on target as per definition of a double top pattern.
PS Haven't paid too much attention to the indicators (they are there to make the picture look nicer)
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i think it has merit if you only want to grab one swing at a time, but if i'm trying to continuousy add to the position on pullbacks, which pretty much always close below the 20 ema, even the 50.
maybe a close over the 200? or just have a discretionary trailing stop
robster970
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Your entry for your pyramiding does have to be perfect though does it providing you are happy that the swing is continuing. Add when you get a confirmation on H1 using PA instead of hanging around for the MA to get touched on H4. Just a thought.
will do. i don't pyramid into individual swings though, i found my entried were actually okay and didn't need averaging up...though i might average in to the pullback if i'm a bit uncertain. but i do pyramid though , i buy one dip, wait for another and buy more. i use the H4 price action to buy
Only way to let winners run is to do it with an amount that you don;t care much about. Some would say you shouldn't care much about the entire trade
So, leave 25% or less open but there's an argument here that any day trade should be closed at end of day.
Once a trade gets over 100 pips, it's easier to let it run, maybe it's a psychological number but you become less concerned by the ups and downs at the point as your stop is safe.
So, leave 25% or less open but there's an argument here that any day trade should be closed at end of day.
Once a trade gets over 100 pips, it's easier to let it run, maybe it's a psychological number but you become less concerned by the ups and downs at the point as your stop is safe.
Hilarymannah
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. Some would say you shouldn't care much about the entire trade
I agree totally with above quote,..single trades are only one small part of the whole, but are needed to build up the picture in its entirety.
If you've worked out your system correctly, just sit back an wait for the profits to build up!
If you haven't,..wait for the losses to build up,...simple :smart:
Change of plan – for the time being.
I've studied my August trades. On most of them I tried to run winners. I don't know if it's something to do with the time of the year or my style of trading (day trader), but I found out that if I'd tried to take profit at nicely calculated targets I would have been much better off than trying to run winners. It seems that nice runs are only wishful thinking in choppy markets and they happen rarely and in my trying to run profits I would give almost half of the pips in the process.
From tomorrow I'm changing the system and taking profits as soon as they are of a decent size or if they hit the target. 'Plan your trade and trade your plan' sort of system.
I've studied my August trades. On most of them I tried to run winners. I don't know if it's something to do with the time of the year or my style of trading (day trader), but I found out that if I'd tried to take profit at nicely calculated targets I would have been much better off than trying to run winners. It seems that nice runs are only wishful thinking in choppy markets and they happen rarely and in my trying to run profits I would give almost half of the pips in the process.
From tomorrow I'm changing the system and taking profits as soon as they are of a decent size or if they hit the target. 'Plan your trade and trade your plan' sort of system.
I agree.
Only slight twist is this, if I have a bias for swing trades, ie if I think it's about time the market turned down, I leave 20% of each of my day trades open to run in that direction. I don't go for the whole swing trade entry that some traders do where they enter just because they think that's the place it should turn and they start running draw downs. Gartman is a classic trader that gets into swing trade draw downs - he seems to beat the market with it but it's not for the faint hearted. The market rarely turns at the exact point you want it to.
This is all relative. Some strategies will produce better result over a period of time if trade is exited after next profitable close whereas other will require staying in for weeks.
If you find it difficult to watch profitable trades turn into a loss, you might consider exiting early even if this is not as profitable in the long run compared to letting it run.
If you find it difficult to watch profitable trades turn into a loss, you might consider exiting early even if this is not as profitable in the long run compared to letting it run.
blackburns
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Is there more profit taking when there is not much money around?
Mr Flibble
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I hear ya. For the last few weeks I just used a 10 point trailing stop on the DOW but only after 7pm GMT. To attempt to do that throughout the day after the start wouldn't be wise. Worked pretty well and kept me in a few trades I would have bailed out of miles before. I have noticed when a price moves up way too quickly then a reversal could be on the cards.
Savana Jhones
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You are right and I am agree with the point you stated. I know how it feels when you find a person winning everytime. I believe following proper rules will definitely help you in winning.
pjchalmers
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Probably have a slightly unusual slant on this as I dont really use technical or fundamental analysis but have a method that works. The key item I have found is that you must stick to your rules. They are the ones that make me profit so I stick to them rigidly. We all think that we know by using these techniques that it gives us an edge and im sure it does. But we dont know really what the markets doing properly so letting winner run is again luck to a varying degree. I have found that if i stick to my rules then I have trades that run within the rules until they are broken and then stopped. There are other trades that ended up reversing but because I applied the rules came out with a smaller profit instead of a loss. Annoyingly there are trades that I stopped using the rules and they then they decided to go much further. But if you have a trade and get good points be happy with what you have. Just remember its in your bank. We never know when its going to run or reverse but use support/resistance etc to help judge. But if it wants to go it will go and if it wants to stop it will stop and to hell with everything and as the market is an animal we will unfortunately never be able to predict it correctly. Who would ever want to be a trader......
