Sometimes I wonder.....

Splitlink

Legendary member
Messages
10,850
Likes
1,235
There are times when I do wonder whether my stops are being monitored and taken out.

I've gone for hours watching the screen with no stop in place but, when I have to do something else and put one on, it gets triggered. I just had one on Footsie at 5543.

I am too small a fish to have my account monitored (I think :idea:), but I sympathise with the "no stop" idea although manual exiting usually loses me more on the trade.
 
You can think of the market as a whole as one organism if you want... it's quite an interesting thought when you take it to its extremes... try it and then think about the stop thing ;)
 
You can think of the market as a whole as one organism if you want... it's quite an interesting thought when you take it to its extremes... try it and then think about the stop thing ;)

Not sure what you are trying to tell me. Could you turn the light up a little brighter?

This is a very sideways market, I expect that my stop was just about where the scalpers come in.
 
Well, if you imagine the entire of the market is one organism, it knows exactly what your position is, and it knows how you trade. So it knows where your stop is :)
 
Well, if you imagine the entire of the market is one organism, it knows exactly what your position is, and it knows how you trade. So it knows where your stop is :)

Yes, but I am a small fish (I know that there are sharks about). I see, now, that the market has gone higher, and I would have got stopped in any case so I am a bit happier. But, since it has happened before, nasty thoughts were beginning to cross my mind. In fact, as soon as I put that stop on, I got a feeling of resignation.
That's one of the reasons that I prefer a stop farther away,when I am watching the screen.
 
Also people think alike. So you were unlikely to be the only one putting your stop in that area. Who knows how big that fish is.
 
There are times when I do wonder whether my stops are being monitored and taken out.

I've gone for hours watching the screen with no stop in place but, when I have to do something else and put one on, it gets triggered. I just had one on Footsie at 5543.

I am too small a fish to have my account monitored (I think :idea:), but I sympathise with the "no stop" idea although manual exiting usually loses me more on the trade.


Stop = order = liquidity. It's nothing personal.
 
There are times when I do wonder whether my stops are being monitored and taken out.

I've gone for hours watching the screen with no stop in place but, when I have to do something else and put one on, it gets triggered. I just had one on Footsie at 5543.

I am too small a fish to have my account monitored (I think :idea:), but I sympathise with the "no stop" idea although manual exiting usually loses me more on the trade.

Blimey Split, I'm surprised at you..:eek: No-one is monitoring our *little guy* stops, that'd have to be one helluva sophisticated software programme to take out your stop in a synthetic market, but still stay a pip or 2 in reach of the real underyling market..If you run 2 chart packages side by side; one from an SB provider and one from a ndd/ecn broker you'll see the margin of diff. is v.small...

Are your stops near big round numbers, or are they simply too tight? One thing you could do if you still worry is pick the HH or LL of the session, (that way in number terms your stop will always be different) or simply widen it considerably, or not 'play' with one at all...(other than disaster-stop)
 
Depends if you are talking about the market stopping you out or the SB companies. In terms of the markets hunting your stops they will never be targeting you in particular. The FTSE price is just a function of the shares that make it up. If it is the SB company then it is possible but unlikely. They would need to be widening the spread rather than moving the price or else they would be exposed elsewhere. As Shakone said perhaps there were other big players there thinking the same way so it may give some incentive to a SB company but I would be dubious.
 
are your stops within the daily trading ranges, or outside (generally)? new prices for the day always get high/low-ticked
 
It hurts. Lost one today because of bad stop placement. I was 25points up on GBP/USD so moved my stop to BE (dont mind giving back a few points but giving back +25 to go -25 would have hurt more). Didnt think to look but my new SL was 1.5700. A nice big round number. On my charts price dropped to 1.56994 before going back to max of 1.57939 thus taking me out.

Worst thing is my system says not to move the stop but i was looking at the computer at the time and i already had 3 orders go from +20 ish to -20.

Lessons learnt today:
1. Never mess with the system.
2. Never put stops near big numbers.
 
There are times when I do wonder whether my stops are being monitored and taken out.

I've gone for hours watching the screen with no stop in place but, when I have to do something else and put one on, it gets triggered. I just had one on Footsie at 5543.

I am too small a fish to have my account monitored (I think :idea:), but I sympathise with the "no stop" idea although manual exiting usually loses me more on the trade.

Solution is to increase the size of your balls ,by re-entering with a bigger position on the reversal from your stop.It gets you in at a more favourable price with a bigger stake.
 
My stop is normally a disaster stop, in case I get blacked out. otherwise, I intend to close manually. When hunger calls, I slap on a stop. This one happened to be a breakout area on the upside but it triggered, came back down a few points, where it stayed for a few minutes before really breaking out. The time before the big move is when I wrote this rant, but I guess I'm happier now, especially when so many eminent posters answered my post!
 
Looking on the bright side, sounds like it triggered your stop, confirming the trade setup was no longer valid and threw you out before continuing closer to your disaster stop.
Sounds like good trading to me.
But I know very little.
 
i used to place a stop based solely on the amount of $$ i wanted to risk per trade - without much thought as to where the stop actually was on the chart. I found I got whipped out of trades quite frequently, and thought along the lines that you are now. Now I place stops where I know my set-up would be invalidated, hence I am happy to get out there because I am most likely wrong...seems to be working quite well. still get whipped out occasionally, but so far a very noticeable effect on my win rate
 
i don't understand what you're saying.You think you're being scammed cause it sounds like that.You've been a member for what 9 years surely you should know better.
 
Top