Sometimes you get to play the best Hands and the Flop goes your way…then the Turn comes…and it doesn’t allow you to max out the trade…then its best to end it (get out)…
Actually, you may have done harm. You may have missed the big move. After all isn't that what successful trading is all about? Market doesn't care if you break even. Market will take out stops that are in the noise. Stops need to be set outside the noise. If breakeven is inside the noise, you are inviting the market to remove you from the trade. Set your position size so that your stop placed outside the noise loses no more than 2% of Total Liquid Net Worth. Then trail the stop outside the noise. Get Right.
Absolutely --tight stops are key. Those tight stops are defined by ones that will not reduce your account by more than 2% of TLNW.
BE stops are part of your trade management repertoire. It is relative to the market noise and the particular setups that you trade. No method/practice is done in isolation. If I may add, BE stops are not a crutch and are actually psychologically painful for scalping. Not bad for trying to get the move of the day.
That's one way to look at it, but not the only way. Setting stops are an art. No hard and fast rules... other than the one about protecting capital.
to preserve capital , its ok to use BE stops either u have two outcomes with no BE , that be win or loss with BE u either win / lose or break even < two out of three outcomes preserve/add to your balance.. its up to the individual trader to decide what suites best to his approach.. for scalping momentum(in/out in a mather of seconds) , u cant be in a better position if your trade sits @BE If you can hit into a price right before it leaves, you will immediately be sitting in a break-even trade... I am long 07 and the market is bid 07. This means, right now, at this moment, if I wanted to get out, I would break even. I am essentially risking nothing to make something.
well, I suppose there is a difference between playing with your own money and the casino's money. If you have added and show a nice profit, a b/e stop on your added positions is just an amusing "can't lose" game. But over time? Over a lifetime? For crying out loud, we are not on auto pilot. Just because you have a nice profit doesn't give you the right to just "tune out" and put in a stop so you don't have to think anymore. No, I don't like moving stops. Hopefully they become so irrelevant I never have to think about them again. And that goes for my stops to add, I don't like moving them.
I think it depends what kind of trade you are doing. If momentum trade, tight stop, afterall, momentum should carry you. If retracement type trade in a trend, then outside of noise.
My two best returning trades I let go away from me by >30% before getting profitable. There is a lot of truth in what the OP states.