You set our stop outside reaction highs when short and reaction lows when long. It's market dependent. This means that you will have to endure pullbacks. Once you accept this and develop the ability to give back profits to let an entry run, then trading is simple.
ya I have trouble on pullbacks ... but now that I think about it I think I have more trouble with false breakouts then pullbacks ...
if one is competent/ skilled/ disiplined (are these all linked?) enough to maintain this, then yes. i seem to fall victim to trying to pick the bottom/ top, nailing the bounce/reverse and so forth.. the short term always overides the bigger picture for me.. and that is frustrating. trailing stops sound better for my situation and are something i had not thought of. thanks for the post.
Like so many here I have the same challenge. I work on it by using a benchmark I call trade management. For example: I have a set up with an exit point and a stop loss (sometimes also a time limit). Supposed I leave the trade before the exit or stop loss got hit. Then I compare the result with what would have been happened if I had let the trade run until either stop or exit had been hit. The difference is called "Trade Management". If it is positive it was fine to leave earlier, if negative it is the opposite. Month after month my trade management was negative, so it was compelling to change my behavior. And I can tell you it is getting better, slowly, but better. I think it is always a good thing to measure your own behavior in order to change it.
I remember when I started writing computer programs to test trading methods lots of my problems disappeared.