Just wondering if anyone else has gone through what I am going through right now, and if you did, how did you get past this stage. I have excellent discipline in taking my losses, and when I have a bad day it is maybe a couple hundred bucks. MY problem is that when I am having a good day, I am making about $300 - $400 whenI should be holding my trades longer (obvious trend days) and should make around $1,000. My question is: What techniques do you use when you are right to max the trades potential?! thanks , Pete
I know the feeling so well. Today I was long NQ at 80,81, and 83 and held to the early high at 92. I told myself this was the big one and I was sticking to 1104. I put a stp in at 80.5 and chilled. Boom the mkt. breaks down to 83, I'm freaking that I almost gave my whole day back, and then sold my entire position out at 88. I guess the whole thing is you've got to be cognizant that in trying to catch the big trend day you're going to give back many intermediate profits on chop days. It's nice to ring the register, granted, but the psychologically disabilitating aspect of missing these moves is undisputed. Recognize that you're not in a good mindset right now, and mind your mind extra carefully tomorrow. I know I will be. P.S. Try hard not to FADE the move now. Thats usually my day after modus operandi! Never works!
I trade NQ futures with a simple statistical approach. I close the trade once the market has moved 2-3% in my direction. How did I get this number? Backtesting. Many times I feel uncomfortable keeping it open, but it has worked out so far. I hope that one day I can be less mechanical about it, but I thought i'd be a robot trader for a while.
I would like to thank everyone in advance who takes this post seriously. I thought if we kick this around a little we can help each other reach our potential.
if you use systems to trade, most likely, they will already take into account the historical levels at which the 'best' place to take a profit is. if you're trading only on discretion, then you'll have to keep moving a trailing stop up, but leave it wide enough to keep away from the mid-day pulbacks.
This is a problem that plagued me for a long time. And it still does from time to time. What works for me is: you absolutely must calculate your target and stick to it. If your risk reward is 1 to 3 then once you set your stop, set your target order. And then I walk away from my desk. I'll go take a leak, or checkmy e-mail, make a call...something to get my eyes off the screen. eventually, if you stick to your plan, and you get a few good targets, psychology will take over..you will become conditioned and less likely to exit early. if you're keeping your stops you've acheived something...now stick to your targets. Happy Trading
i don't have this problem because i don't care. i don't care if i make $500 or $5000 each day. i don't really care. it's all the same to me. i truly don't give one rat's a$$. consequently i stay in the trade till i get out, it's as simple as that. and man that does feel great.
I should have mentioned, in my tests I found a trailing stop works equally well in the long run. It turned out to be bigger than I originally supposed it should be (10 NQ pts).