because I was trading with hard stops and targets at that time. Since then, I took your advice. If it moves against you, get out.
Been there, done that. You will get chopped to PIECES doing this. You'll also never get a decent winner. Do you wait until it moves 4 ticks against you? 10 ticks? 1 tick? Price doesn't move in straight lines.
It's not quite that easy. Or simple. You had been in a range since 1040. And while stops and targets may be possible in a well-defined range, they are for the most part wishful thinking. Yes, take your longs at the lower limit of the range, if there is one, and your shorts at the upper limit, if there is one. But then you have to see if price is doing what you expected it to do. If it isn't, you have to get out and the hell with the target. This is all quite different from trading a trend.
What you wait for depends on the results of the testing you do. But if you insist on trading chop, you're going to get chopped anyway.
Go have a look at my journal. I had explained exactly why shorting was a bad idea at the time you went short (I actually waited and went long).. Secondly, whats the reason for you entering the Market? You haven't told me yet.. Are you a pullback trader, breakout trader etc? And thirdly, I think you are over trading for right now.. Try to set a daily loss limit and move on to the next day..
Question. You went short because you expected price to fall. It didn't, so you got out. It's now been sitting here for a half hour. What would you be thinking if you were still in? What would you be doing for this half hour? If sellers are in charge, why is price just sitting here? And if it resumes its downtrend, what are you going to do? Since you're out, you have all sorts of options. What are they? This is trading.
If I was still in (and using my typical hard stop/target approach), I'd just be waiting for it to hit either my stop or limit. (unless I got a new buy signal, in which case i'd reverse the trade) If price is just sitting here, then it would seem neither buyers or sellers were in charge at that point in time. If it resumed it's downtrend now, it would likely be without me being on the train. I'd need a signal of some sort to get on board. You could say that 'price moving down' is 'signal' enough, but then you'd need to quantify 'down' and it's not as if there's a certain tick amount that means price is likely to carry on in a particular direction. Also taking every tiny move as a signal like a puppy chasing it's tail sounds like a recipe for disaster. (commissions+chop+'noise' etc)