Day 9 I have a feeling today will mark the last day of using tight stops. Sure they provide good risk/reward but there are too negatives: I can't increase share size and I get stopped out for no reason a lot (no reason means I get stopped out only to see price go back to my entry and end up collecting losses before real move starts). I was thinking about moving towards that direction for some time and when I was trading ABIO today I just couldn't take it anymore, getting stopped out and then re-entering only to find myself stopped out again and re-entering again all near the same price. So I'll try to forget everything I do and re-write my trading plan this weekend. Funny, I'm already trying to catch "falling knifes", now I'm going to trade without stops. So what else do I need to do opposite of what all the books teach us -624 (+354 and -978 in Tradestation account) -756 week
Made one more trade on the way out of the office, went long IOC one more time. totals now -301 -433 week Kinda feel discouraged, has nothing to do with today's loss. Just feels like I'm doing this wrong. However very motivated to adjust and change. Have enough data to go through this weekend. Frustrating though, feels like after all these years I should be making at least more than McDonalds employees.
What I have been doing with some success is using my initial calculated stop as a guide. Whatever time frame I'm using I'll let the price trade below the stop and if the bar closes below the stop then the low of that bar becomes the hard stop. It has saved me a couple times when the price spikes down for a minute then recovers. It has also bitten me in the ass when my loss worked out to double what I had calculated.
don't lose your frame. re-read the suggestions/comments from people in the thread lots of great advise. there is nothing wrong with not trading if the setup is not there.
Hey T, I'm not sure exactly how you trade in real time, but if you choose to fade moves (try to pick tops/bottoms), your choices are to scale in without stops (except for a disaster stop), or to place limit orders a specific distance outside the last price thrust, then put in a tight stop and hope support or resistance is established there. A far more satisfying method of picking tops and bottoms is to wait for the first higher low or lower high. Then you can use a tight stop and most of the time you get a winning trade. The suggestion of placing your entry order where you are planning to place a stop is also valid. I sometimes do that when I counter-trend trade, but I rarely counter-trend anymore without confirmation via a HL or LH.
walk away a while. actually you do not need day in and day out to trade to beat the market. in last september, I was told to be temporarily laid off (in reality it is a permanent layoff), I was so eager to make money to compensate my Macdold job ( just a joke), often loss chases loss, quickly belly up. then stop, just do the morning session, if win something, stop. if not, stop too. watch TV, read book, forget the market. I often try to catch the most profitable trade, not those either or trade, so my commissions is greatly reduced, even one week, I just did several trades, but great, I start to gain ground. actually, if you did right, you can quickly recover from those either or trades. the more you trade, the more you may lose your mind, you may be mad at the market, the more eager you want to trade so you can recoup your loss and gain ground....