Well 5 minute ATR-14 stands now at 33 ticks... My experience with trailing stops is that they work if you play them really tight or really wide (and then exit at some target), but if you try to go "middle of the road" you tend to get stopped out at the worst possible points. Now I move quickly to BE, but then give it ample space (and target about 1 full point).
Those strong moves normally happen in the direction of the trend, so you're most at risk for slippage like that in a counter-trend trade, unless you've had a 3rd or 4th really strong push in the trend, then the reversals can be just as violent (leaving the those wick-ed dojis at the top/bottom). I used to trail stops, but now I try to leave my initial stop for a while, move it to b/e when the trade's 10-15 ticks in my favor and avert my eyes at that point to avoid micromanaging the trade so my target has some hope of being filled. I place target a few ticks inside a previous support/resistance zone to be tested next, or I choose a fixed tick target based on previous moves from low to low or high to high. I'm pretty sure I "tried out" CL for about 4 months in sim before I could accept the potential loss-per-trade.
I use the 5' ATR as a rough guide of my maximum stop and see if I'm comfortable with it (so right now I'd be trading with a 30 tick stop), or if I'm not, I don't trade. However, if I see the euro or the S&P turning sharply against my position I tighten the stop. Also I try to start my trades at times where I know I will be able to "let my profits run", that is, I don't start trades before inventories or major reports, because then I know the position wouldn't have the time to reach its target (I try to hold for 1-2 hours, sometimes less, sometimes more; my losses and breakevens tend to last only minutes).
Done for the day at max stop loss (-1k) Not a bad tuition for first day of training! -81 pts today. Accuracy 20%. Back to the drawing board. Any ideas on what has consistently worked over the past few years? Of course the holy grail is me.