trailing stop - need some advice and help please

[mp6140]

MP == 2 happyhero

hey happyhero

Trailing stops are not the greatest tool in the forex traders arsenal and while i work with NO stops, i wont reccomend that for a relative newb without a whole lot of understanding and experience --- you MUST LEARN when the markets do reversals, which knock your stops for a loop, as they do it everyday at the same time of day !

What bramble posted is more in the line of flipping and once you learn the time of day to do this, plus the signals that will tell you that NOW is the time, you might simply stick to your swing trades and be prepared for the reversals with wider stops, or TRADE the reversal, as bramble states.

dont ask us --- try it for yourself and see !

My first tip is a simple one --- relax and absorb the information around you -- there is a lot of good and a few stinkers around, but most are good and worthy of being tried till you get an idea as to whether or not they work for you ---- believe I told you "trader_dante" has one of the safest and decent systems going and you could do very much worse than look at his !

iN THE END, its all about experience and trusting what you see, but you cant get there until you spend the time to get the education --- "systems" can help (in fact, a lot of people ONLY trade a system)

It gets easier every day, but it doesnt get uncomplicated for close to a year, if youre pretty decent in the mind department !

mp

 

[happyhero]

Hi Chorlton, I appreciate your comments as I said before I am the amateur here and you are definitely the pro in my eyes so I look to learn from people like you. The reason I will not stop trading with real money is because I want to keep making money, and having done this since 1992 albeit haphazardly in the beginning, I have slowly made money, but not as fast as I would like or as well as I see others doing, for this reason I would find it not impossible but painfull to just stop. I like the excitement of the investment and feel I could learn whilst trading and save taking all my funds out.

I trade anything within the lse, I find most of the blue chip shares boring and I like the AIM shares but am very restricted as I deal within ISA's most of the time which do not seem to allow AIM shares, but I do also have a small account not within an ISA wrapper which I try to take advantage of the AIM shares as much as possible since I am so restricted. The good part is I do not have to pay taxes on the profits due to them being ISA's so I have almost tax free trading apart from the dividends but the bad part is the restrictions with AIM shares etc, but I still seem to do ok. Its just the problems I mention in the beginning of my thread that I am struggling with how to use the stops for best results.

I do thank all of you for being happy to talk with me, as from my point of view it is a bit like the trained engineer talking to the DIYer, I appreciate my lack of knowledge can be difficult to cope with, but I am grateful for your advice.

You say I could use a simple system, which system would you suggest I use and learn?

I mention Tullow Oil and yesterday it went up 24%, can you suggest what I might do with this as this would normally be a share I stay with for a while. Would you suggest I take the profit as the move was a little extreme, or where would I put the stop on it. I decided it was a good gain and have put a stop in at 886p at present, can you comment on this please?

 

[Chorlton]

Hi Chorlton, I appreciate your comments as I said before I am the amateur here and you are definitely the pro in my eyes so I look to learn from people like you. The reason I will not stop trading with real money is because I want to keep making money, and having done this since 1992 albeit haphazardly in the beginning, I have slowly made money, but not as fast as I would like or as well as I see others doing, for this reason I would find it not impossible but painfull to just stop. I like the excitement of the investment and feel I could learn whilst trading and save taking all my funds out.

Hello Happy,

Thanks for the compliment but IMO I am by no means a "pro" as you describe. I am simply someone who has been trading for a number of years, trying many different approaches until I found something which agreed with my own personality. During those early years and even today I found a lot of useful information and helpful people on this & other forums, and as a result try (where I can,) to help others out who are currently where I was a few years back.

Reading back through the comments on this thread, you have definately been given some very good advice from others on here and I would suggest you take the time to understand the feedback.

I can understand why you want to trade immediately and obviously if you are happy to risk real money at this time, then who am I to argue. Maybe you could consider trading smaller lots but thats totally up to you.

I trade anything within the lse, I find most of the blue chip shares boring and I like the AIM shares but am very restricted as I deal within ISA's most of the time which do not seem to allow AIM shares, but I do also have a small account not within an ISA wrapper which I try to take advantage of the AIM shares as much as possible since I am so restricted. The good part is I do not have to pay taxes on the profits due to them being ISA's so I have almost tax free trading apart from the dividends but the bad part is the restrictions with AIM shares etc, but I still seem to do ok. Its just the problems I mention in the beginning of my thread that I am struggling with how to use the stops for best results.

IMO Trading the AIM market with a goal to make consistant profits is IMO a difficult endeavour. This, IMO, is mainly due to the volatility of these types of stocks together with their wide spreads and in certain instances lack of liquidity.

I also trade some stocks from this Mrkt but I class these as my "gambling" stocks. Higher risk, but potentially higher rewards. I have tried in the past to apply the same Money Management & Risk to these as my main portfolio but with little success.

You say I could use a simple system, which system would you suggest I use and learn?.

I'm not sure if I've already mentioned this on here or on another thread but you need to find an approach which suits YOUR personality. If you take the time to sit down and really consider this, you will naturally be drawn to a particular type of approach.

I mention Tullow Oil and yesterday it went up 24%, can you suggest what I might do with this as this would normally be a share I stay with for a while. Would you suggest I take the profit as the move was a little extreme, or where would I put the stop on it. I decided it was a good gain and have put a stop in at 886p at present, can you comment on this please?

Whether you decide to take profit or not is unfortunately down to you and your risk profile so consequently I won’t comment on what you should do.

However, if you want my own view then looking at the chart, it seems you have chosen the Open of the day as your stop point. In some instances this would be seen as a little too aggressive. Personally, if I were trading this stock I would place the stop just below the low of the day to give it sufficient ”wiggle” room. There are a number of different gaps in trading and in this case I don’t believe it will be filled any time soon, given the massive increase in volume.

However, if price fell below the low of this day then I would be looking to get out, as IMO there is a lot of current support between 860-886.

I would suggest that this stock will probably trade higher for a few more days as it looks like the reason the price rose was as a result of positive news. Others seeing this rise will also look to be buying in, resulting in further rising prices. However, keep a watchful eye on volume. After the next few days, I would suggest that price will drift as some profits are taken. However, if this downward move is accompanied with low volume, this would indicate that Mrkt sentiment for the stock is still positive and the "smart money" is looking to stay in.

How you manage the trade over the next few days or even weeks is down to you though...

All IMO & Good Luck,

Chorlton