Problem with holding profitable trades!!

[Rossini]

Ok so here goes. Iv been trading for just over a year, I am in profit on the account (now only about 25%) The money doesn't bother me, if I can learn to trade with more consistency and consistently focus on the good setups I think the money should follow, i'm having a great time as well. Iv done the usual newbie stuff like risking too much of the account and making a killing (like 100% in a week etc) and had drawdown's of 50% as well!

I like to think that i'm now very good with controlling the losses, I very rarely get emotional with loosing money as it doest affect my account in any huge way. It much better as well that I now risk a fixed % of my account on every trade I take (see my other thread about stops).



For the first couple of months when I had 0 knowledge of trading I did the search for the holy grail, and gave up lol!



Apart from messing around with simple systems at a very low stake (this passes the time while I am waiting for a good setup to show itself) I'm concentrating on chart patterns. Obviously I haven't been trading long enough to see different market conditions but the current market conditions I am getting much better at identifying the good setups. My problem is not in entry or stop losses, but my exits when I HAVE A PROFIT ARE TERRIBLE. I was looking through my notes (I print a chart of every trade I do) and I would say only 1 out of every 10 trades did I get even 50% of the move. I know where i'm going wrong unlike many people I reed about, but i'm finding it very hard to get out of this bad habit!



I can just see what will happen given time, I will keep taking small profits, then I will have a long streak of losses and give back all my winnings and possibly more. They say you go broke taking small profits.

My question is, using a system based on discretion, how can I improve my profit taking? If its just more time that I need to spend then i'm all up for that, after all a year experience is not much in this game! But if any successful traders went through the same problem and sorted it can you give some guidance to me??

Im asking this now because I think im not all that far away from much more success in my trading. Only time will tell.



Many thanks

 

[price777999]

does moving your stops not work ?

 

[price777999]

in my opinion trying to hold trades doesn't work. i only trade for 2 points now and love it. i'm done in the morning. it's consistent, that's why i like it. try going to daytradetowin.com see what you think, i have been recommending them for some time now. Today i took 2 points on the short side, i'm done trading for the day.!!

400 bucks for an ebook ...bit expensive ant it :?:

 

[TomTom]

The amount of times i have bulit up a nice trade with the view of holing it for a long time !

Please remember we are traders so get in and out fast amd move on to the next.

Trading CFDS ok if you want this expousure, the days of low volitile markets are over.

6 years ago yes but not when we see 600 pts movement on the dow in two days.

One dayt we saw a 1000 point range, too much hastle for me, take up and spend um LOL

 

[KillPhil08]

Use set targets.

Get in. Define your stop, define your limit. If possible add a trailing stop once your TP is hit. Then walk away from that chart or your PC and don't come back.

Behave like a machine.

 

[twistedheat]

If you are trading stocks (or more than a few contracts) than Grey1's methodology is absolutely brilliant I feel.

Where you have been typically closing off your profitable positions, do this instead:

- close of only 75% of your position
- the other 25% of your position, set a stop loss at your initial entry + $0.02 (to cover your commissions)
- let this other 25% run for the rest of the day - either it will get stopped out, or you will catch a massive run; especially in the current volatile markets

Example:

Open long position with 400 shares on XYZ @ $51.50.
XYZ hits $52.25 - sell 300 shares, place a stop-loss for 100 shares @ $51.52
Do not look at, or do any analysis on the remaining 100 shares of XYZ until 5 mins before the end of the day. It will either have stopped out already, or you just close your position.

 

[Rossini]

Thanks for the replies. Im trading FX but that could be used in any market I suppose?

 

[advfntrader]

trying to bag only 2-5 points a day at a large amount per point sounds easy. but is it ?

not tried it before actually

 

[TomTom]

:smart:Not sure what way it will go ?
Trading in a range ?
Buy footsie or sell footsie
Sell DAX or buy dax
WHen one has spiked to a high/low of a range close the long/short then wait for a pull back and close the other postion.

It willl not make you ritch over night but will deffo give you a stable income while learning this game.

I have 2 hourses one dog and a rabbit trading this method for me since 1998.

Had to sack the Hourses in june as the cost of clearing the Sh*t out has increaced, the rabit and do are still with me and now looking toi recruit some hamsters:smart:

Yes Im going back tothe nut house tomorrow for the weekend

See you on the other side fowks

 

[porph]

If you are trading stocks (or more than a few contracts) than Grey1's methodology is absolutely brilliant I feel.

Where you have been typically closing off your profitable positions, do this instead:

- close of only 75% of your position
- the other 25% of your position, set a stop loss at your initial entry + $0.02 (to cover your commissions)
- let this other 25% run for the rest of the day - either it will get stopped out, or you will catch a massive run; especially in the current volatile markets

Example:

Open long position with 400 shares on XYZ @ $51.50.
XYZ hits $52.25 - sell 300 shares, place a stop-loss for 100 shares @ $51.52
Do not look at, or do any analysis on the remaining 100 shares of XYZ until 5 mins before the end of the day. It will either have stopped out already, or you just close your position.

This is very much what I do. Except I take 2/3 and let 1/3 run.

 

[Windowsill]

does moving your stops not work ?

Good idea!

 

[Charlton]

If you are trading stocks (or more than a few contracts) than Grey1's methodology is absolutely brilliant I feel.

Where you have been typically closing off your profitable positions, do this instead:

- close of only 75% of your position
- the other 25% of your position, set a stop loss at your initial entry + $0.02 (to cover your commissions)
- let this other 25% run for the rest of the day - either it will get stopped out, or you will catch a massive run; especially in the current volatile markets

Example:

Open long position with 400 shares on XYZ @ $51.50.
XYZ hits $52.25 - sell 300 shares, place a stop-loss for 100 shares @ $51.52
Do not look at, or do any analysis on the remaining 100 shares of XYZ until 5 mins before the end of the day. It will either have stopped out already, or you just close your position.

Yes - this is very effective, you take profit off the table and then have an entirely risk free trade, that can often generate more than the 75% already banked.

Charlton

 

[timsk]

in my opinion trying to hold trades doesn't work. i only trade for 2 points now and love it. i'm done in the morning. it's consistent, that's why i like it. try going to daytradetowin.com see what you think, i have been recommending them for some time now. Today i took 2 points on the short side, i'm done trading for the day.!!

Hi solarbeyond,
Yours is the second plug for this site I've read today - so I checked them out. It's very repetitive and, worse still, riddled with typo's. And that's just the homepage. To be fair - excellent grammar and spelling have no correlation to trading ability, or the ability to teach others how to trade. However, it doesn't inspire confidence as it's so easy to get rite. (That's how they spell 'right'!) If the site was for a jobbing builder I wouldn't worry about such petty details. But it's not. Let's face it, our profession is about accuracy, detail and precision (especially if you're trying to scalp 2 points off the ES). If they can't be arrrsed to get their web site 'rite', then I very much doubt they have anything of any real value to impart. So, I'm afraid to say that four letter words like scam spring to mind - among others.
Tim.
P.S. I expect my post is riddled with typo's and poor grammar, but hey, this is just a bulletin board and I'm not flogging anything at $400 a pop!

 

[mikeeg]

For those that daytrade forex like myself, i have adopted a WIPLIP approach (When In Profit, Lock In Profit).

Far too many times have I left a profit run into a loss and trigger my SL. So when a trade moves into profit, lock it in (even if the profit is 1p!). A profit is a profit no matter what. Protection of capital is vital and there will always be other trades. Never try and hit a home run on every trade and just be thankful that the opportunity to take a profit (no matter how small) materialises.

I do agree with cashing in say, 70% of the move, and locking in the remaining 30% too. All depends on your position size I guess.

Mikey.

 

[iclaudius0]

:smart:Not sure what way it will go ?
Trading in a range ?
Buy footsie or sell footsie
Sell DAX or buy dax
WHen one has spiked to a high/low of a range close the long/short then wait for a pull back and close the other postion.

It willl not make you ritch over night but will deffo give you a stable income while learning this game.

I have 2 hourses one dog and a rabbit trading this method for me since 1998.

Had to sack the Hourses in june as the cost of clearing the Sh*t out has increaced, the rabit and do are still with me and now looking toi recruit some hamsters:smart:

Yes Im going back tothe nut house tomorrow for the weekend

See you on the other side fowks

So, are your dog & rabbit looking to enter both a long and short trade at about mid-range and also not using stop losses, or am I making a monkey of myself?

Cheers. NG

BTW who is LOL?

 

[new_trader]

trying to bag only 2-5 points a day at a large amount per point sounds easy. but is it ?

not tried it before actually

Do not be fooled. Difficulty is not proportional to the size of the profit you expect to make. The size of your profit is determined by your skill. If you are skilled at picking large moves your profit will be large. If you are skilled at picking small moves your profit will be small. As always, you should cut losses early and let profits run.