Scalpers stop loss

[new_trader]

I tried 5-10 @ ftse but very bad got caught many times , after that i tried 20 point stop loss @ ftse , its good so far .

I have said it before and I will say it again and again and again. You are making a BIG mistake if you keep increasing the size of your stops because they keep getting caught. What happens when your 20 point stop gets caught, will you make them 30...40, then 50..60...100!? You are not going about this the right way at all.

 

[ffsear]

He never said hes going to increase his stops everytime one gets caught. All he said was at 5-10 he got caught too many times.

The same goes for my data. I have made profit this year using a 20 stop, if I had used 5 a lot of my winning trades would have been closed as losses.

 

[new_trader]

He never said hes going to increase his stops everytime one gets caught. All he said was at 5-10 he got caught too many times.

The same goes for my data. I have made profit this year using a 20 stop, if I had used 5 a lot of my winning trades would have been closed as losses.

Sure, that would happen if you didn't work on improving your entries. A 20 point stop might not get caught but will the trade yield a profit? What if it retraces 15 points from entry and stays there? Doesn't catch your stop but never moves into profit either?

 

[dumbowl]

jmho

When you are scalping, entry is important.
You should have a method by which the market goes in your direction right after you enter thus cutting down the spread to zero.
Besides entry you should have a definite target.
Unless price goes in your direction 'for a while' because you have chosen a high probability enter, you should close with whatever profits at hand.
If you are itchy, the best you can do is go to the bar around the corner and have a beer to unload the adrenaline.
Stops ? I don't use stops.
But then, I am only a dumbowl!

 

[0007]

jmho

When you are scalping, entry is important.
You should have a method by which the market goes in your direction right after you enter thus cutting down the spread to zero.
Besides entry you should have a definite target.
Unless price goes in your direction 'for a while' because you have chosen a high probability enter, you should close with whatever profits at hand.
If you are itchy, the best you can do is go to the bar around the corner and have a beer to unload the adrenaline.
Stops ? I don't use stops.
But then, I am only a dumbowl!

I'm no scalper but concur with the above in the context of swing trades 1- 3 days. Stops? - not as such, i just get out if/when it's not going my way.

 

[Bullish75]

scalping the ftse

I trade the FTSE and use 20 pts stop-loss, and make a profit. I target 5-10 pts per trade, but i say 1 in 5 trades i take more then 10 pts. My first and only trade today took 23 pts.

5-10 pts SL would be far too tight for my trading style

Hi ffsear,

Do you mind me asking what platform you use for trading the ftse? I currently only trade fx but want to take a look at other markets. Thanks.

 

[cofton]

I find 10 pips per trade target and a SL of 15 works fine. Of course any SL depends on your style/system.
When I use 10 per trade and SL 15 then I know that with 2 losses I need 3 wins to break even and 4 to be ahead (or 1 loss and 2 wins to be in profit) . I find this easy to manage my money.
If you have a relatively successful system or trading style then you will have few losing days using this on the ftse, not sure about the fx though as I haven't tried it yet.
Be happy,
Cofton

 

[candles]

If you're scalping you should be earning the spread!! If you have to pay a spread then your are completely underutilised and way behind the game before you even start

how to earn the spread?mind to elaborate how to do it.

Suprised nobody else seems to have picked up on this.

If you can 'earn' spread rather than pay it, then we can just make an instantanious few pips profit with each trade? Excellent. Someone wanna clue me in?

 

[fifty2aces]

Suprised nobody else seems to have picked up on this.

If you can 'earn' spread rather than pay it, then we can just make an instantanious few pips profit with each trade? Excellent. Someone wanna clue me in?

It means using passive entry+exit - use limit orders to buy at the bid and sell at the ask (rather than market orders where you buy at the ask, sell at the bid). Obviously this is only possible if you have direct access.

 

[grantx]

Black-star,

“its like telling the market what it should do next.” And the market throws a deaf one every time.

I can never understand the idea of targets. If you aim for 50 points but it never reaches, do you wait until it does (assuming your stop has not been hit)? What if it only reached 40 points, do you hold on in expectation? What’s wrong with 40 points – does it represent a failure? I suspect it does because it may be regarded as an indication that your method for 50 points may be flawed. This is nonsense. This is the converse of NT’s second thread (ie I’m not disagreeing but pointing out that your point re stops also applies to targets).

NT,

Re your first post, I agree with you but would modify “the market moves immediately in your favour” to “the probability increases that the market moves immediately in your favour.”

NT,

Just read your third post. We seem to be in harmony tonight.

Tar,

“i use CS with 1 point spread on ftse”. You married to a CS director’s daughter? Oh, you’re the chairman. Sorry.

Bolts,

Interesting point. To me this illustrates the potential advantage of intra-day trading or scalping – 90% of the time daily high-low range is greater than the daily change. And the smaller the intra-day time-frame, the greater the total points (up + down). However, you also need a good method/strategy to trade this.

Grant.

 

[fayalac]

When i set a position and the market works against me, maybe i can hold it, lets say the market moves 100 pips against before coming back, in the meanwhile maybe im prepared to make 30 leads of 4 pips each, the net i won so i will each the trend comes back. In other words it depends on you.

 

[rosewood fox]

stop loss

For what it is worth if your scalping on a volitile stock then as far away as possible the swings can wipe you out if you dont.Death by a thousand stop losses.Maybe your trading plan wont allow that, in which case prehaps scalping is,nt what you should be doing right now.You have to get a balace on this one and it aint easy in my opinion.Best of luck.
Regards Mike..

 

[blancspa]

watcha

thinking of using CCI breakouts for scalping, however sometimes just adfter CCI breaks -200,-100,0,100,200 it pulls back for a few minutes. Thinking of hitting on the pullback.
Is there any indicator can help mi to adjust the entry. No volume (it doesnt work for me somehow).

Regards

 

[bennie83]

Thought I'd update this interesting thread. I have a couple of questions which may have been touched upon already, but it's good to get opinions.

1. For scalping what size stop loss on Ftse future and also emini S&P future?
2. Do you need a specific risk reward ratio for scalping or do you just take a couple of pips even if you risk several more than potential reward?
3. Does anyone recommend a particular scalping strategy?

 

[FXCode]

It depends on the signal!
Assigning a standard SL is wrong. SL should be placed according to the signal upon you trade.

 

[bennie83]

It depends on the signal!
Assigning a standard SL is wrong. SL should be placed according to the signal upon you trade.

Could you give me an example? Thanks

 

[cofton]

Grantz
I understand where you're coming from with the scenario of 50 TP and closing at 40 pips but a trader either has system rules or he/she doesn't. If you use the same scenario with a 10 pips TP and you come out out 5 TP and you do this everytime then when you have a losing run then your profits will not pay for your losses long term (depending of course on your SL).
If a trader has tested his system/method either by backtesting (or preferably demo trading) then he/she will know whether or not it works to the rules that are set. There is nothing worse than to come out before your TP and find that you would have reached your TP and therefore you have said goodbye to more profits. The only reason we come out of a trade before our TP is because we are suffering from fear.
The same can go for taking more than our target TP, we are then suffering from greed.
We either have set rules or we don't. If our system has proven to work then we stick to the rules of the system. What's the point of setting rules if we do not stick to them, we may as well just trade by instinct alone or gut feeling which for most traders would not be profitable.
I agree when using the 40 and 50 pips example it looks like one is being greedy as 40 pips is a more than acceptable TP but again if our system/method has proven to hit TP of 50 pips more often than not and has proven to be profitable (given the stop losses that we are working with) then we must stick to our rules.


Grantz
I can never understand the idea of targets. If you aim for 50 points but it never reaches, do you wait until it does (assuming your stop has not been hit)? What if it only reached 40 points, do you hold on in expectation? What’s wrong with 40 points – does it represent a failure? I suspect it does because it may be regarded as an indication that your method for 50 points may be flawed. This is nonsense.

 

[forker]

i cant believe a scalping thread with only 5 pages has over 3k views....

 

[laptop1]

My stops varies from day to day.........I don't believe one can trade with the same fixed stop everyday. some days you could wait a few hours for your 20 point stop to get hit, other days it can be hit within 2 to 5 mins..........You must understand how the market is acting on a given day and adjust to it.

 

[cofton]

Depends what time frame you're trading on and your trade entrance and exit rules.
Fixed SL's and fixed TP's are normal for specific systems/methods. It's irrelevant what the market is doing if your system/method is proven to your satisfaction

My stops varies from day to day.........I don't believe one can trade with the same fixed stop everyday. some days you could wait a few hours for your 20 point stop to get hit, other days it can be hit within 2 to 5 mins..........You must understand how the market is acting on a given day and adjust to it.