Problems with Stop Loss
Trading strategies are up to the individual. This really is intended to be a programming forum.
Sounds like you have too much emotion to be happy having a hand-off algorithmic approach.
Or maybe that's exactly what you need.
Meanwhile:
- Try coming up with a strategy with a SL (and if you desire, a TP) and try trading it on a demo account, see if you can manage to keep your mits off it
- Once you have a solid strategy, if you think (as you seem to indicate above) that your broker bay be hunting your stoploss, build an EA that places a decoy SL and manages its own closer SL
- Wouldn't a $100 TP have gotten you what you needed in the example above? :-)
CB
Hi Cal
It sounds to me that yo are talking like a gambler. To put it another way you don't have a strategy you have a tragedy (waiting to happen). You cannot talk about what might have happened because had you done what you can see after the event would still have been wrong during the event. For us that are not naturally gifted at recognising market direction we have to learn and that takes, I have been told, about 3 years if you can stay the course. Take CD's advice and come up with a strategy and make an EA. You are a smart person since you can already see you have a problem so I think you will choose the EA route rather than the manual one. Why should we sit in front of a screen all day when we could be on a beach with a mobile monitor.
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I love it when a position moves significantly into the green. So say a position has $200 profit showing. To lock in those profits, I'll rush in and set up a new stop loss at say $100 profit. It never fails to always bounce back, hit the stop loss, and then move another 50 points in the direction I was hoping it would! Every_Single_Time. I want to protect my $100 profit, but today I did that exact scenario. I had $200 profit showing. I set a stop loss at $100. Inevitably, the SL was triggered, and the position then moved another 50 points in the direction of the trade, costing me over $250. I needed that freakin $250 to make up for my $330 loss from last night because of over leveraging my freakin positions like a moron.
I make mistakes. I continue to make mistakes. I can't seem to correct these mistakes, and it is costing me money. I have been frustrated to no ends by the forex, but refuse to give up. I am tired of relearning mistakes over and over and over again. I have been trading for almost a year on the forex now, and want to know there is a light at the end of this tunnel.
So my question is. When I set a stop loss, should I set it before the trade, and never touch it again along with my TP, or should I edit my stop loss to protect profits. I am torn between two strategies. I suppose both have their strengths and weaknesses.
Set it and forget it? Had I not altered my original order, I set the stop loss at 1.4333 and my TP at 1.4202. I opened a short position at 1.4265. When it got into the 1.4225 range, I change my stop loss to 1.4235, guaranteeing my $100 minimum profit on this trade. The position inevitably bounces to 1.4237, enacting the stop loss, before further dropping into the 1.4185 where it is now. The position made $100, but could have made $350!
I trade by a rule my old pappy once told me. "You can't go broke making a profit." Well, somehow, I found a way to go broke by making a profit, because that's exactly what I'm doing!
I suppose my biggest weakness is not finding trade opportunities - but the order management once the order is placed. Anyone have any advice on order management, once a position has already been opened?