Anything better than ATR for stop setting

Discussion in 'Technical Analysis' started by mcteague, Oct 10, 2012.

  1. mcteague

    mcteague

    I am looking at where to set my stops and was planning on using ATR to give me some guidelines. For stocks I might just look for support and resistance prices. But I am looking at emini futures, and they are not as clear cut. Or rather they don't appear at points particularly useful for day trading.

    Anyway if I am in a trending market I would rather not be stopped out by the stray big candle. On the other hand, although in certain markets I am willing to have a fairly wide stop spread, I don't want it so wide that it has little value.

    Perhaps if there was an indicator that told me the largest high-low candle spread that would be better. I guess I could also just try 1.5 * largest ATR for the previous X candles. Or if any of you have a suggestion.

    Thanks
     
  2. JMN459

    JMN459

    Stops should be placed below the most relevant swing, and should not be triggered until close of bar on your signal chart.
     
  3. =========
    T trender ;

    Emini derivatives[not really about the future, mostly about the past ,present]are great-studies, very liquid, .....................................
    SPY/SPY/related is a VERY important benchmark;
    but none of those trend that well, generally speaking.

    Long stort short ,50 dma is very useful, with much study.Shallow sudy of anything is not worth much.
    %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
    ===========================================;
    But for me to tell you more specifics would NOT be nearly as profitable as for you to explore find it yourself.

    Wisdom is profitable to direct.:cool:
     
  4. mcteague

    mcteague

    Thank you. This is an excellent answer.
     
  5. Handle123

    Handle123

    Really depends on the timeframe, if long term, once you get to breakeven stops, why move them at all. My testing shows using trailing stops cuts most profitable trades short. But if you are doing intra-day trading, pivots work best.
     
  6. VinMan

    VinMan

    Agree 100% and size accordingly so hat you acceptable dollar amount loss is not exceeded by hitting that stop.

    Personally, I have found using the ATR stop to be the worst strategy for me.