I think given the tone of today's market... that you either take smaller profits on longs, or else don't even enter until the market sentiment turns positive ala trin/tick etc. If I entered long at 1503 I would still be in. But like I said I did few futures trades so far this year. ICe
Fade it.. Short in it a little at a time.. Have confidence... You'll know if your getting squeezed.. Unless the price velocity is there.. hold tight. The few the proud the Shorts
Sorry to go a little off topic, but important: Unless someone else besides you entered that stop loss order, you should start thinking "it came back down and I stopped it out." Why: when you enter stop loss orders you will start thinking: well, if price gets there, I don't want to be in any more, because the trade probably won't work out. This prevents the trader from putting a stop loss where it shouldn't be-- in a place where the trade still has a decent chance of working out.
I believe the real problem is that you are daytrading in a mkt that has changed in dynamic. The ES and NQ no longer only move in accordance to shorter time frames. Several years ago that was the case. You had enough volatility and trading range on a daily bar (heck even a 1min and 5min bar had 10pt ranges in those days) now your lucky to get a 10pt range on a weekly bar. Seriously though, understand that there are too few players nowadays and not enough volatility to make daytrading the easy game it once was back in the 1990's. You should consider swing trading and align yourself with the major trend. You will see a + difference in your trading. if not then meet me in the chat room and I will explain in further detail so that you can actually follow my example. your friend and mentor T-REX
Cudnt agree more enter the trade enter the stop enter the profit and then forget about it ..... all that wasted energy only 2 stop urself out for a cple of $$ and then hve 2 sit there and watch it go str8 2 ur profit ....... listen 2 urself 4 a minute
I hate stopping out 1-2 ticks from my stop and then watching the stock take off in the expected direction.
The absolute worst is getting stopped out at the absolute high or low tick of the day! I managed that today on the low earlier. It's still holding.