What works for me is the following: Take partials at 1R and put the rest at breakeven and trail the stop for the rest of the day. You will make less money (depending on the method) but most traders can work better with a strategy like this. If the move does not last, you will at least have 0.5R of profit. If it does last, you will at least profit a little! But you have to realize, if you exit like this, you will need more at least 3R to make 2R. Mathematically you will not be better off but psychologically you will in most cases.
Maybe psychologically I'm more suited to trade the ES I will post my trades from this morning later on today. Maybe you guys can further point out what I'm doing wrong. Appreciate all the help so far. -FastTrader
since you trade 1000share lots. Scale out your winners. That can slowly build your confidence in taking larger and larger profits.
The best solution that I came up with is to scale out. If I'm long 2000 shares. I'll sell 500 on the first surge up. Then another 500 shortly after that. Then I'll sell the next 500 on the next surge up. Now I'll kind of sit with the last 500. Then I'll sell the last 500 shares on some sort of extended move in my direction. I will close the position immediately, at any time, if my premise for entry becomes invalid. Scaling out is my way of taking in the money. You gotta make the cash register ring. All or nothing isn't the way to go. You gotta scale out. The downside is that when there is a huge move over time, I will have scaled out of most, so I will have my smallest position. But I can deal with that. I rather take in consistent profits in a somewhat systematic fashion.
my .02 cents worth, A very good friend helped me by setting up most of my charts in "tick" bar format I agree with the previous poster that looking at higher time frames really helps "me" in my identifying where I take profits and where I cover loss's or more specifically very simply looking at resistance and support. The time frames I use are ; 100 tick bar, 400,800,1600 and 180min tick bar charts. It turned around my trading for me, it may not be applicable to every trading style though. rttrader
From your answer, it appears that you are buying momentum with a lot of "discretion" in your system. That is an extremely difficult thing to do in any timeframe, as momentum profits can often be very short lived, and you NEVER know when it is going to fade on you. To solve the problem, I second those who advise that you must have a system with solid rules that you feel comfortable with. If you hit the profit target, you move on and bank the points. If you hit a stop loss, you at least know you have followed the rules. If it isn't working, then change the rules. Regarding leaving money on the table, if it happens every once in a while, well, welcome to the club. But if, in doing a reverse study of your trades, it happens regularly, then just adjust your rules. But if you don't have a system, you can't adjust your rules, and you are back just to playing head games with yourself on every trade. So again, it all starts and ends with having a system. It makes life so much easier.
Fast_Trader: If you donât mind disclosing (although you mentioned 2-4 minutes), how soon are you taking your exits relative to your profit target(s)? Just shortly after price leaves the gate in your favor, about half way through the move or close but just shy of your target? Kermit
lindq, and others thanks for the help. Over lunch I will post my trades and maybe you guys can look into them and find some other issues that I might not be seeing. I will also analyze all my trades from this week and come up with an average percentage stop-loss that would have kept me in. -FastTrader
Kermit, I don't mind at all. Actually, later today when I go home for lunch I will post my trades for the morning here and you'll see that I got out extremely early (it's quit embarassing actually). -FastTrader