Personally, I hate to use a trailing stop because you're always getting out on a pullback. I would rather try to exit on an extreme move, with a failsafe trail of maybe 50% of open trade profit. Two rules that have helped me over the years are never let a winner go to a loser and decide if you can handle a pullback of the move without exiting. For example, if the ES has moved up 10 points off a breakout and you are long, if you can't handle maybe a 5 point retracement, you'd better start looking for an exit point. Otherwise, the typical pullback will shake you out at a significantly less favorable price.
I understand your thought process with a ten point gain and can see how riding out a retracement might make sense, but what are you doing with a 2 pt. gain? Does your stop immediately go to BE? Never let a profit turn to a loss would indicate that you might. What's going on in the early parts of the trade? In your mind? TIA Steve
Thx for the link. It's a load, any favorite parts? I see they have the never let a profit turn to a loss, but at the same time they expect 50% winners, tiny losses and 20% big gainers to make your profit. I guess 20% of our trades should just go straight up??
tried to call you, 963. MAN, you really are behind bars. they let you trade in prison ?? what are you in for ?? jack:eek:
I go one of two ways, depending on how actively I am trading. If managing passivly, I set an automatic trailing stop equal to the distance to below the previous support (for a long, above previous resistance for a short). If manageing more actively, I will continue to monitor previous support resistance and adjust - this is probably the better way, but auto is less stress.