It's just the game, they know where Retail will buy and where there SL will be and if they spike it down fast enough then it'll hit the SL's and slip and cost you more than planned. Then the reversal screws with your mind, then next time you'll use a looser SL and move the SL then take big losses and blow your account. Experienced trades, wait for support to break and then reverse before they get in. More patient on the entry / buy on the way up don't try to buy the bottom.
5 min bars were 10+ handles wide today both ways ... days like today.. even w accurate entry.. stops need be measured in handles vs ticks... On average, Algos will hunt stops accordingly... retail stops are usually clustered and rather easy to tag, fyi
Yesterday's HOD/LOD, the night market/globex high/low should be marked on your chart if you are a discretionary trader. There are always stop and limit orders above/below these levels. They are the low hanging fruit. As the market searches for liquidity the closest of these levels to the RTH open generally get tested first.
Gentlemen This is precisely why averaging down as the market moves against my position can be so lucrative and render high win rates. But alas, the gurus have drilled into us “never ever average down” and “only losers average down” ...etc This said, I still gotta know “when” and “how” to do it. And I still have to have a “give up” point where I just take the loss on an averaged down position. And I have to have a strategy to get back my loss quickly.
Wish I had the guts to do what you do. Because one wrong average-down move at the wrong time can wipe a large account.
Throw out everything in books or in so called "Conventional Wisdom" in trading out of the window. You can do whatever you want (Average down, Average up, double down, etc...) as long as you will still be breathing, alive & well after you realize you are wrong.
In other words you are not only not respecting your initial stop, but you are also adding to a position that it is obviously not going your way. Why don't you close your losing position first, and re-enter later if and only if the price returns to your original entry point? Did you backtest that second option (no averaging down and possible re-entry later)?