I agree with this thinking. Although not everyone agrees with hard stops, I think if you are struggling, this is the way to go. It will be very tempting to throw in some discretion into your exits during a trade but you must maintain the discipline to let the trade play out. In effect, you will be taking your emotions out of the trade. Just make sure you know exactly where your stop and target prices will be 'before' entering the trade. By doing this you will never take a larger loss than you should have. I also use IB. As soon as I enter a trade I put in a limit order for my target profit exit and have a market order ready for my stop loss. I do not hesitate when my stop is hit. I just press the transmit button and move on to the next trade.
So, using IB, you would in this order: 1. Place the order (sell at market) 2. Place the buy limit (~ target price ie 5 pts below entry) (note: This order is transmitted and is sitting on the IB que, and when the price is hit, IB changes it to a market and it is filled.) 3. Have a buy at market line ready to go, (your stop loss order) and all you have to do is hit transmit. But, I should have #3 be Buy stop transmitted sitting in the que at 2 pts above sell price, waiting to be hit. Question: If she goes my way, can I just change the price of my sitting stop loss, or do I have to cancel and re-send? Tried to play with the IB demo this morning, but could not get it to load the ES contract. Will try later on today. Thanks.
Huios, Have you tried using the OCA (one cancels all) order? I have not used it, but it looks like you could have both your stop and profit target orders in at the same time, and when one is triggered the other will be cancelled automatically. "Question: If she goes my way, can I just change the price of my sitting stop loss, or do I have to cancel and re-send?" On your stop order, you can change it by selecting a new price and hitting transmit...it will automatically cancel and replace the previous order as long as you are on the same order line.
OK. Yesterday something broke. I realized that I did not have concrete entry and exit plans with in my existing trading plan. I sat last night (after the concert) and this morning going over past charts. Decided on concrete plans. Now remember, I am a trend trader, and not a contratrend trader. My only setup is the retracement of the existing trend. Todays trend was up in the am, down over lunch and up at 2:30 to the end. I had a simple entry and exit. Setups were the easiest part. Exits: Initial stop loss was 2 pts. picked at random, and if the trade went in my direction for 2 or more points, I moved the stop to break even. Actually, next time it will be breakeven plus a tick for commissions. Trailing exit was the low of the previous bar in the uptrend, and the high of the previus bar in downtrends. Some of the trades ended in a strong bar with huge volume. I tried to take profits at the end of the parabolic move, especially if it did not penetrate the nearby s/r line. T7 a great example of this. T1, T13, T15 and T18 could have had better exits, in hindsite. Yes, I know, everything is clearer in hindsite. Caught the CIT in the morning, but missed it in the afternoon. The 14:45 rally was almost 45% of the downtrend, and I should have treated the higher low at 15:00 as the beginning of the new trend, and caught the big move up for the next 21 minutes. Took a short at 15:27, didn't like it but too bad. If I would have had something for the CIT, would not have taken it, but would have already been long. T20 I treated at a blow off top,and shorted it. It was an outlier, and should have not been taken. The fact that it was a winner makes it even worse. I took every trade, and stuck to my stops. Things need to be cleaned up a little, but I am really pleased with today. Cage, where ever you are, I took every trade today. Thank you. 20 trades, 11 winners, 5 losers, 4 b/e Ave winner: 4.75 pts. Ave loser: 2 pts. Total net points: 42 on a one contract basis Here is the chart with comments.
Thanks for your suggestions. I'm gonna try some stuff tonight. The OCA sound like the ticket, if I can figure out the demo and see how it works. I am not as familar with TWS as I should be, and I think that is some of the problem with my trading. Thanks again.
We are moving over the weekend. I will not be trading tomorrow, but should be back in the saddle Monday. Gonna try to solidify some exit stuff over the weekend. Have a great weekend.
Huios, awesome trading. I have the same problem not taking all the trades. If you have a positive expectancy methodology then your giving away profit not taking trades. Keep up the good work.