up to what size can you hold without waking up at night/feeling stressed ? i have a 45k account at IB and experience sleep disorder whenever I hold a 1M position in USDJPY. am i a chicken ?
blackstormcap, I find this is a personal matter. But as a rule of thumb, use no more than 5:1 leverage. Other things affecting this decision is if its a scalp..or a medium term or a long term position. Naturally, if you use Stops and TP's this could be confidence building too! If you are based in the USA...London can get rather tempestuous and could make it hard to sleep. London never does what you want it to do... ES
.............................. sounds like a " short trade " to me. is that even a fib. number.......
I had major troubles sleeping even before I started trading, so 19/20 days I'm flat when I go to sleep. I live in EU so I usually park myself in front of the screens around London open and shut down after NY close. I never hold losers over night so when I hold its usually a trade well in the profit with a conservative stop that I've taken some profit from already.
hmm...... it doesnt matter for me, how much volume i trade. I am always stressed and do not sleep more than 2 hours in one part, if i have a critical position, when i need to sleep. Thats totally ok, with me, 2h sleeping, 2min check the screen, i must just strech my arm and put on the screen beside my bed, if i dont have to act, i can sleep again, for 2h. I do not need any alarm clock, i wake up normaly, every 2 hours or so, after every dream, i dream a lot, usually 3-5 dreams at 8h sleep, means i do also wake up 3-5 times, between my sleeping. But when i have a safe position, i shut down the computer and sleep in peace, because nothing can happen to my trade, because the risk is safed. It depends of the current trade risk situation. If risk is safed or not. But the volume size doesnt matter, it never matters to me, its just a % of the trading account, real money it only becomes when i withdraw it, i see this like in poker, the money is a tool to work with it, no emotions needed here. I can have emotions about the money, when i have withdrawn it and it is safe on my bankaccount or in my hands.
I don't know how you trade, but 1m per 45k sounds about right, but that is a lot of eggs all in one basket. forex is 24/7 so none of us who hold ever sleep too well. I'm lucky, if it's a bad position I usually have a nightmare that I got a new job and am late to work and wake up and close it out. If it's a nightmare about my ex wife screwing somebody else I always double up and take the other side.