ugh just lost 20% of my account was short EUR

lesson learned never have a trade open when the fed is involved.

 

Unless you have seriously deep pockets.

 

your stop allowed you to lose 20% of your account? i wouldn't blame the Fed for that. sorry for your loss though. learn to protect the remaining 80% a little better and this will be a good experience in the long run. :eek:

 

Ditto

Also, if you're going to trade these types of potentially volatile data then trade small with w-i-d-e stops, it's better to make a small profit than risk a big loss.

 

it probably traded thru his stop, that happens during news driven events

 

usually only if you had a stop limit will it trade through and stick you for a much larger loss. if it was a stop market order then likely the worst case would have been a few pips slippage. i have been in the Euro futures contract during a fast market and the slippage is noticeable but not too bad since it is so liquid.

 

That sucks. You have to realize that currencies can fly during a fed announcement. That EUR spike was spectacular.

 

Just looking at the euro chart, you should have never lost so much even if price blew through your stops, i have market stops and will get slippage but reasonable slippage. You position size is too high relative to the volatility in the market. This is why traders will cry about slippage of a few points, u have to realise that the brokers systems do have lags and you do not take vol into account yourstops will get hit more often and you will incur more slippage and you will risk too much per trade. Another piece of advice increase your diversification!

 

better 20 than 40

 

commisserations


'one shots' happen infrequently and except for an exceptionally perceptive
individual or insider trader, cannot be taken advantage of prior to the event
notwhithstanding many will have added 20% to their accounts today, but

it raises the question for me of intraday v day-to-days trading, not one or
the other but possibly employing both methods in two accounts

without getting into trading systems/techniques, with d-t-d trading one can
hold a position for days/weeks/months and such trading requires very little
computer/monitor time compared to intraday trading, less stress and in
theory, fewer losses and greater profits

some people are built for intraday trading some not - or the fx instrument is
not the one to be intraday trading, and some would do far better d-t-d trading