To JBT...just read your book "Millionaire Traders"...WOW...what a great book...every trader should and must read it...wow...great book...anyone else read it yet?...I'd buy it now!!!
your answer does not clarify what i am looking for. let me give an example. Suppose I have 2 contracts. I make 30 on the first. Suppose I am stopped on the second at what you refer to as breakeven. What is the overall result in your understanding of breakeven for both contracts (total points divided by 2): 1. Zero (breakeven for the whole) 2. 15 points (breakeven for the second) I hope you now understand why I am asking for the exact meaning of breakeven.
Boris and Kathy are on the short list of people worth learning fx from (along w/Bain and Nison), imo. I'm very careful about who I work with/recommend (because a lot of you are right to be skeptical of 99% of people who are vendors in this industry; most vendors are bs), however Boris is on the very short "good guys" list. There's nobody else other than Boris/Kathy, Nison and Bain I recommend learning fx from. -k
We consider that type of trade as +30 on 1st half - what we call T1 and breakeven on the 2nd half (0) sop we consider that the trade made +30 on the whole position.
This post does not explain/clarify what you exactly mean "breakeven on the 2nd half". The purpose of the details/example in my post was to help you help us clarify it. Whatever you consider the 30 pips is fine with me. I just wanted to understand the exact meaning of "breakeven on the 2nd". Please provide an example. It is a question of where the new stop is? If the answer is the new stop is at "breakeven" we would be in a circle as I do not understand your meaning of "breakeven". Do you see my point?
jbt: My asking for clarification of "breakeven" was to ask a related (more important) question. I can ask a part of this question which does not depend on the meaning of breaken. Initial trade , let us called it T, is composed of two trades (or subtrades): T1 and T2. So trade T=T1+T2. What you do can be equivalently thought of as: 1. Take off trade T (both T1 and T2). 2. Place a new trade T3 that has size T2, but with a stop moved to a location X (which is determined if and when you explain breakeven). Of course you will not place T3, but rather just take T1 off (which is lead to the same position). You have therefore decided to place a new trade (T3) which has a lower size than the first trade (T=T1+T2). Is it simply because pair moved 30 pips or are there other reasons for lower size trade? (I may have a question on the stop size which I could not address due to the clack of clarfity of the meaning of breakeven).
Let me explain by using the latest example. December 10, 2008 4:20PM EST ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Short USD/JPY a market (now 92.61) Stop at 93.21 Buy half back at 92.31 Buy back rest at 91.25 The US trade balance is due for release tomorrow and we think that the data will be weak given the drop in the export component of manufacturing ISM. Even though equities have rallied today, the move was far from impressive. USD/JPY is still in the sell zone and we think that it will head lower over the next few hours. December 11, 2008 12:54AM EST ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ USDJPY T1 made +30 move stop to breakeven at 92.61 (AT THIS POINT ONE UNIT REACHED OUR PROFIT TARGET OF 92.31 (+30). WE MOVED THE STOP TO BREAKEVEN ON THE SECOND UNIT ASSURING THAT WE WOULD NOT LOSE MONEY ON THAT HALF OF THE POSITION) December 11, 2008 3:47AM EST ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Move stop on USDJPY to 92.41 to lock in +50 December 11, 2008 4:52AM EST ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Move stop on USDJPY to 92.21 to lock in +70 December 11, 2008 6:05AM EST ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We are out of USDJPY +70 on the trade
"WE MOVED THE STOP TO BREAKEVEN ON THE SECOND UNIT ASSURING THAT WE WOULD NOT LOSE MONEY ON THAT HALF OF THE POSITION) " Now I understand what you mean by breakeven (you will see another meaning down in this post). Essentially your breakeven is to move the stop to the price of entry. Have you tested moving the stop to entry price MINUS 30 pips, and give more time for the half position? The idea is to have the trade viewed as a whole as free (which is another interpretation of "breakeven" ) but with "unlimited" upside? What do you think of this? Also what is your answer to my other post (In which there is the discussion of T3=T1+T2, etc...)