Totally unverifiable and tells me nothing at all. There might be a significantly correlated reason why you used mental stops in those cases that weren't hit, eg. because the market was wild or very quite. Just don't know. Maybe shorts and longs. Anyway, what is a coincidence to me is that you did exactly 50% of your trades with, and 50% without a stop. I wish you happy trading, and don't forget to check under your bed before going to sleep. The urban myth lives on..... Ursa..
Why do you think that is a coincidence? If you are going to compare anything you need to compare it an equal amount of times. I alternated between stop and no stop on every trade. Did I make a mistake a few times, sure, there were a few times I had to place two orders with no stop or vice versa, but the basic time periods were equal. I would rather be happily paranoid and control my own destiny than to be at the market maker's whim and wondering what happened, or worse yet, convincing myself that the stock just happened to drop down to my stop because of supply and demand. I know if I were are market maker I sure would appreciate everyone telling me where they are willing to sell and buy their stocks. It sure would make my job easier, and far more profitable.
If you don't want your stops to get hit, learn how to improve your entries -- end of story. The best trades never look back, no time for games.
Well, that's the whole point. You'd rather believe that something is going on that is technically (almost) impossible than face the truth. The truth is that you stops will get hit; that's what they're for. Maybe you're trading a thin stock on some exotic exchange, but on the larger ones, like NASDAQ top-100 stocks and futures there is simply too much volume to have your order make any difference. Even when it was visible, which it isn't. Ursa..
Nevere heard of that. How? Which broker? If a stop can be 'hidden' that would almost prove there are unhidden ones too. Ursa..
A Hidden Stop is a stop order that resides in your broker's server. As soon as it triggers it becomes a market order for everyone to see. Check your broker. I use Etrade Pro and they have it.
Hmmm, hidden stops. I wonder why they would offer that to their traders when all stop loss orders are supposed to be hidden until triggered? Could it be because the market maker CAN see the orders. I know the answer to that, but I'll let the Major think about it for awhile.
I know that ordertype but I've never seen them called 'hidden'. (Are they really called that on Eturd?.) On IB it's transparent; if a certain ordertype is not natively supported by the exchange than IB will emulate it on their server. No need to call them hidden, we're not hiding. There are many many other ordertypes that are not supported by all exchanges, but are supported by IB. The stop-order is just one of them; just as the conditional order had many purposes of which 'hiding' could be one. Again you're seeing things that aren't really there. This could seriously impair your judgement as a trader. Ursa..
LMAO, I'm doing fine as a trader. I don't believe I am the only successful trader that uses mental stops.