Bloodhound
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re: having wider stops to allow "myself" to breathe, not the trade.
That is so insightful.
The real tension is when the stop-loss is about to be hit, and you're wondering "will it hit the SL and reverse? shall I push the SL a bit further out?" etc
having a wider stop, allows you to see the action with less tension as its further away from the stop. and gives you time to assess.
With tight stops, you put yourself into tense mode immediately because the slightest nudge could threaten the trade.
I can relate to that post of yours. Thats why most of my trades have about 30 pips SL. I find it gives me about 30 minutes to monitor whats happening. If a trade is poorly executed, you have more information/bars to assess its worth.
thanks for continuing this and have a great week.
Stops are a tough one but, despite trying a variety of options I am back to where I started, with 20 pip hard stops, trailing after entry on M1 up to break even and then taking it from there.
The interesting thing Trendie is that, when I wrote that post, I thought widening my stops would allow me to breathe more and stay more relaxed. In fact it wasn't stop distances that were the problem but the fact that I did not actually have a set in stone plan for how I would trail in the early phase of a trade. Thanks to some excellent advice from Jon, I have now dropped down to M1 and all is working much better.
So how do you manage your trades when they go off side, for instance do you have a soft stop at Xpips that sits between your hard stop and entry, if so what might that be.
I use a 10 point hard stop (futures) but will close (no ifs, buts or maybes) if price reaches my soft stop price level. My soft stops vary according to the contract but never exceed 3 points.
For me, placing a hard stop helps to keep it out of the action around my entry and it also acts a disaster prevention measure.
I find large stops to be an anathema, if I'm wrong, I like to know about it ASAP and be long gone, not to mention large stops require a greater positive price move so as to maintain a decent RR ratio; each to their own I guess.
Peace
For me, placing a hard stop helps to keep it out of the action around my entry and it also acts a disaster prevention measure.
I find large stops to be an anathema, if I'm wrong, I like to know about it ASAP and be long gone, not to mention large stops require a greater positive price move so as to maintain a decent RR ratio; each to their own I guess.
Peace
Hi Peace,
Totally agree with what you say, especially regarding R:R.
As to what I do when price goes offside, good question!! It really does depend on the individual move, speed of price etc. I'm comfortable with price moving 10 or 12 pips against me but after that I get nervous and will cut trades instantly if I think things aren't looking right. On the whole price gives some clues (such as a LrH on M1 printing in an upmove). As a gauge I would say that I expect a breakout to retest the breakout level and maybe overhsoot by a couple of pips. Any more and things are quite probably going wrong.
All the best
Rob
Hi Rob
How many go's at the level ?
ie: just after you trade out it turns on a sixpence and triggers your level again without giving a buy signal
you in again or you stand to one side and let it go or not as case maybe ?
Andy
The attached chart illustrates how I like to place em, all very basic stuff but someone somewhere may find it useful.
hard stop 10080
soft stop 10073
Short 10070
TP 10000
Stopped out at 10074, although price did go on to trade as high as 10084 but has since dropped to a swing lo of 10059
Got filled on this when I should have pulled the order given an imminent news release at 11am and higher than average momentum on M5, vary rare for me not to follow my rules, hey ho wide awake now.
Peace
Hi Peace
thats your stops
whats your attitude to reward Peace - how do you deal with the great unknown ?
you a manual trail stops trader or fixed target or something else ?
Andy
Therefore, close stops are an expensive dream for most of us.
Distant stops can be a bit expensive, too, though. 😕
Some will be selling this I guess and some will be waiting on the other side to buy it.......
View attachment 67980
N.B. No requirement for anything other than a few lines.......
g`luck with trying to catch top/bottom
I do belieive it is possible, but you need extreme patience. It's worth it for the R:R though.