STOPS: where do u put yours?

...aaah BUT, the first assumption you had may not be such a bad idea anyway!

Why not move your stop to entry as soon as your trade is filled? Sure, most of your trades will be stopped out almost immediately, BUT if your trade selection was right in the first place, the 1 in 5 or 1 in 6 trades will never come back to your entry when filled any way.

This way, most of your trades will lose no more than your costs, and you can sustain this for a VERY long time. Approx 25% of your trades however will take you to the bank in a big way!

Just because the books tell us to set a stop somewhere, it doesn't make it so!

Traders trade. Authors and salesman peddle systems, courses and books.
 
Trader333 says he never ever ever alters his Stop , does he apply the same strong discipline to profit-taking? i.e take his profit once it hits his set target or he allows it to run?
cos both decisions r very important and require a lot of discipline...i'm wondering whether his approach to both decisions is different.
 
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I use "mental" stops only and I move them about at will depending on the stock and how it is behaving.

I prefer this flexible approach even though it can drive you mental at times.

I find that my overall sucess rate ( circa 82% ) is increased by taking a flexible attitude to each individual trade.

You need to know the stocks you are trading however and there are certain ones where I will never alter the stop level albeit it mental.
 
It has taken me a very long time to learn how to control my emotions whilst trading but I have found as you make more money and your pot size steadily increases, then it becomes easier to maintain control of your emotions.

But you have to remain realistic about position size. ie. don't go overboard.
 
grubs,

What I said was that I never move my original stop position further away than where it first is placed. In other words I do not risk more than a set amount at the start of the trade. But once in profit I will do as others do which is manage the trade and this involves trailing a stop and or selling half my position at certain points etc.


Paul
 
I'm still trying to improve my discipline (esp when it comes to profit taking).........that's y i asked the question........wasn't meant to be a criticism
 
The easiest way in profittaking is take half and run half. That way you'll be more relaxed once you've got some ££$£$ in the bin :cheesy: and make more of the remaining trade. :cool:
It's much easier with plenty of £$£$ behind you or trading other peoples' ££$$£. :cheesy:
 
You guys are all technicians and beleive in market going through cycles... are not you ?

So why donot you choose bottom of the cycle ( LOW of the day ) and top of the cycle ( HIGH of the day ) to have a simple adhoc stoploss system ..


For LONG:-

Set Stoploss at low only if ( HIGH _ current price ) > = 2 *( current price - low )

If the above criteria did not satisfy then donot take the trade no matter what your indicator tells you ..


Reverse for short

This is for our younger traders.. others might use more advanced methods..
 
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i understand the first part of ur statement but the bottom part is a bit confusing.
 
Daytrading DAX I run a 4 point stop which I place at the level +/- 1 tick below the last low (if long) / above the last high (if short).

My aim is then to move into profit and move my stop to breakeven or +1. I then close at first retrace. and short or long there. If the retrace is a reversal I will do the same with my stops and wait for ist retrace.

If it's not a reversal but a retracem,ent I re-enter with same rule of stops.. but hopeful of a bigger move now, I will move my stops up 5 points above entry and wait. Hopefully we may have a 20 point move. if not I get 5 points (the stop). I have a target set of 20 points always.. but will close and scalp if entering just below resistance/above support.

Once I eneter a trade and it move in my direction I will move the stop up from -4 to -2 asap to avoid large losses..

I end up with about 50% success rates,, lots of small losses, a few small gains and hopefully 2-3 large (20+ points) a day..

That's the theory............
 
grub,

which bottom part is confusing ? lemme know I explain further..

regards
 
This bit:- Set Stoploss at low only if ( HIGH _ current price )= 2 *( current price - low )
itions..........the formula
 
Ok

let say u are trading DOW and you have decided you want to go long

lets say DOW has a LOW of 10400 high of 10600 and the currrent price is 10480.

Then A= ( 10600 -10480 ) = 120
B= ( 10400- 10480) = 80

The criteria is A should be greater or equal than B by 2 times other wise we donot take the trade.. In this case 120 is not twice larger than 80 so no trade..

Now let assume the current price was 1420

then A= 10600-1420= 180
B= 10420-10400 = 20

A is 9 times greater than B hence we take the trade when the indicator tells us..

SO we set a stop @ 10400 when the price is around 10420 ish ) depending on your indicator's signal )

This is a simple risk analysis technique .. You can aslo add a simple money managment technique to it if you wish,, Sell 1/2 when A=B sell rest when B=2 times A ..

regards
 
thx i was confused by _ (wasn't sure whether it was a minus sign).............i will try it out on a dummy account to c how it works in comparison with my choice of fixed number of points.
 
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