Trailing Stops... How tight are yours?

[vchohan]

I'm trading the FTSE100 at the moment and recently introduced trailing stops into my strat which works wonders to lock in profits. Best of all eliminates emotions of greed and fear.

So how do you run your trailing stops?
Do you tighten them as your profits increase? Or is it set from the beginning?
Also what market are you using it on?

Just wanted to find out how tight peoples stops are. If there's any using on the FTSE100 I'd be very interested.

Viks

 

[rathcoole_exile]

different strokes for different folks, but how about using the low of the preceding 3 bars, and keep adjusting upwards as long as higher lows are being made on subsequent bars ?

 

[nile_croc]

I use 10 bars to start, then tighten to 5 after a predetermined profit target, then to 1.

 

[vchohan]

Someone tell me how to multireply.


rathcoole_exile
Is that the trailing stop you use or suggesting one to me?
What market do you use this on?


nile_croc
What market are you using this on?
Do you use the low of 10bars, 5bars, etc?
Do you wait to be stopped out everytime then?


At the moment I'm using 20points then 15points as profits increase then tighten to no less then 10points. I can see the advantage of using previous bar's open as a trailing stop too looks to be more advantageous, however, if using that method and you have one bar that goes just below the previous 1,2 or 3bar open and then the following bar continues in your favour you get stopped out where you could've taken in more.

But I guess thinking about it this is prob the reason why you begin with a 10 or 5 bar stop then tighten up.

Viks

 

[nile_croc]

I mainly trade forex, all pairs.

I use the low of the bar.

I do not always wait for a stop to hit, I'll bail if something doesn't act right, or follow-through properly.

 

[rathcoole_exile]

rathcoole_exile
Is that the trailing stop you use or suggesting one to me?
What market do you use this on?

sometimes i use it on ES

sometimes i use Keltner Channel - on a Long, once price bar closes outside Upper KC band, I use Low of that bar/candle body

sometimes I use pivot points, market profile areas etc

sometimes i use other things

 

[robster970]

I'm trading the FTSE100 at the moment and recently introduced trailing stops into my strat which works wonders to lock in profits. Best of all eliminates emotions of greed and fear.

So how do you run your trailing stops?
Do you tighten them as your profits increase? Or is it set from the beginning?
Also what market are you using it on?

Just wanted to find out how tight peoples stops are. If there's any using on the FTSE100 I'd be very interested.

Viks

I'm currently backtesting my automated system which is specifically trading stocks in FTSE100.

I move them 5% with an offset of 5% (i.e. price hits 10%, TSL moves to 5%, price hits 15%, TSL moves to 10%). I've found that 5% is sufficiently big to handle retracements. I also rebalance stock-levels when a profit target is hit which further protects profits rather than leave all eggs in the basket so to speak.

You might want to look at volatility based stop-losses using ATR and multiples of considering the volatile nature of FTSE at the moment. I don't use ATR (I use simple StandardDeviation which is more than adequate for my simple set-up) but I know quite a few people on here advocate it.

Money management is absolutely crucial to trading success. Manage the one thing you have control over well and this to some degree mitigates for the market and it's randomness.

 

[Chorlton]

Money management is absolutely crucial to trading success. Manage the one thing you have control over well and this to some degree mitigates for the market and it's randomness.

Excellent Advice !!