...the way you handle that probelm, hmm... let your winners run, unless it hits your stop loss...simply stop caring about small losses, it's an expense we spend to get to the big winners- you know the 117 ym points! say you lose 5 trades at 10pts...some were even small winners, but you let them run and they retrace and nothing... so -50.. the 6th trade you let the winner run, still only risking 10pts, sure enough, you get lucky and it's 250 pts up, you pay off your -50 and make 200pts. Bingo. Solution: stop scalping, you wont make anything more than 50pts scalping. and, add more capital to your account to pay for those little draw downs if you have to. I don't even trade for 10pt wins, 20pt wins, or even 30 pt wins. It's 50+ for me and i prefer 100+pts. I just consider my stop as an expense that i might end up spending to find out if it really is a nice winner.
Thanks for your help Jaytrade. it seems like you are my only friend out there. I understand your point and it makes perfect sense to me. However I think your strategy is different from mine and I am not sure whether this would work for me. Looking back over my past 15 winners, only 3 could have been larger than 50 points and only 1 could have been larger than 100 points. By analysing these trades I would have got the best results by applying a fixed 20 points target. I suppose my strategy is more of a scalping technique therefore I have to take profits earlier than you. But I don't like having a fixed points target, I would prefer to have a target based on something fundamental such as a previous S&R level. I guess it would be easier if I could trade 2 or more contracts. I could then have 1 fixed 20 points target, and be more patient with the second contract. LL
At this stage, my trading strategy is still pretty much "work in progress". I have managed to significantly improve in certain areas but I get the feeling that everytime I fix something, something else breaks. By entering a fixed target I have managed to keep my emotions in check and let the winners run longer. I have learned to stop taking 4 or 5 point profits and I am now shooting for a R:R of 3. Of course the percentage of profitable trades is much lower now. Also the number of consecutive losses is on the rise. All of this is hard to accept but I know it's the only way to improve.
Great! It took me almost a year to learn how to be disciplined and keep my emotions in check ... only to discover that my trading system is not profitable when applied correctly
It seems like I have just now reached the "moment of clarity". According to John Carter's "Mastering the Trade", I am now moving from phase II - fear based trading - to phase III - the search fo the holy grail! The bad news: Quote: "many traders stay on this search for the rest of their lives"
I already found the grail (revised 2.0 version) And my target point gains in FX are now up from 50-100 to 200-500... I even had a sell signal in ES futures for 100 points! I don't trade ES-but it would work for futures, stocks, fx-or whatever you trade. Lex: the key is this, bigger trends, bigger time frames, and less signals... Daytrading is dead. The biggest spoils go to skillful swing traders. Want to see what I'm using? It's not perfect, but pretty good I would say.
Bullshit. Pure bullshit! I mean, the type that is still steaming on the ground on a cold winters day.