Use of stop loss

Is it necessary to use stop loss when you think you are losing you investment here? Is it really helpful.

I think that a properly placed stop loss is always helpful. It’s an integral part of a trader’s risk management, helping curtail losses as well as give a trader a measure of control over their positions whenever they cannot be at the trading platform for whatever reason.

There are two types of stops:

  1. Actual
  2. Mental

Before a position is [B][U]ever put on[/U][/B], you should be able to effectively determine one or the other.
Stop losses define your max risk. That max risk should be pretty consistent for each position (jn terms of % of equity risked).

One of my friend told me that stop loss is important , It will help us lessen the risk of loss. So maybe make time to include it on your list, so if ever you encounter such thing, you already know what to do.

It’s more about timing of entry you don’t need stop loss in my opinion

Have you never had a momentary power-cut or loss of internet connection? It will perhaps take only [I][U]one[/U][/I] instance of that, to change your mind fairly dramatically: I hope it isn’t too expensive a lesson for you, when it happens.

It costs [I]nothing[/I] to enter at least a disaster-stop with every trade you make.

Yes, it’s an absolute essential, if only to avoid having your account wiped out by one unexpected and entirely avoidable accident.

On my opinion, stop loss is a important it will lessen the risk of loss. and blowing up account.

Have you seen me lose yet? I learn t my lessons a long time ago I don’t lose anymore.

It’s all about following the trend and not sitting there trading all day and spending every minute of every hour doing forex. you really have to love it your always good at what you love.

there’s an old saying warren buffet does not have a stop loss

Its not about stop loss but about odds and percentages if you make 50 percent 6.6 times out of ten with 50 percent margin every time your in profit look to horse racing odds thats where you’ll get the edge.

Its about margin calculation of outcome and no more than 400 percent margin in each trade if you loose one you win the next one time of entry always after tokyo closes

Only reason people blow out is because they sit there trading all day, 15 minute time frames 40 minute 1 hour al to much day trading time frames

of course if your going by a 15 minute time frame your gonna blow your account stop sitting looking at the computer have some patience, i do like 2 trades a week maybe 3 compounding.

Odds Table

Ive never seen anyone say they don’t lose anymore. Do you mean you have a 100% win rate? Not calling you a liar or anything, it’s just unbelievable. Can you post a link to myfxbook?

Not only is that ridiculous nonsense, but it’s also offensive to some of the forum’s more senior, more respected, more successful members, [I]some of whom have been making their livings for many years by doing exactly that[/I].

Not only do you have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about, but you’re also offensive, ill-informed and just plain [B][U]wrong[/U][/B] in most of what you post here. It helps nobody.

Advising people to trade without a stop-loss is just plain idiotic.

It is trader’s own choice to use stop loss or do trading without it . I would not advertise trading without stop loss. Because I think stop loss is helpful in many ways. You can manage your risk with it, avoid emotional trading and come out safer from marker if you are at loss side. Without stop loss you can easily loose your grip on trading.

Always use a stop loss no matter what.

Yeah look at my aud usd thread. its 100 percent in profit

My strike rate is about 90 percent overall and thats before i even started posting. At the start they called me a fool not calling me a fool now :slight_smile:

nothing is 100 percent but very rarely i lose.

Im very high iq at maths. It’s just maths not fundamentals not charts maths is the key (this is what i do not advice to you, as i’m very superior at maths.)
I don’t trade like everyone else.

I do hundreds of combinations a day an hour

I’m just posting a thread to my link to show it is possible but i think i’m one of a kind really.

You are better off taking advice from the other members as not many people can do what i do maths wise

http://forums.babypips.com/show-me-the-money-daytrading-/80665-todays-day-jump-audusd-5.html#post775947

Very good ideas and advice from all of you, great info.

and a money maker machine for brokers. stop loss needs to be given some award, truly

One of the big problems with stop losses, other than not using them, is knowing where to put them.
Going by posts on BP, too many traders seem to decide they want to make say 20 pips profit ar a r:r of 1:2, so stick their stop at 10 pips, irrespective of whether or not that is a sensible place to put it.

I always place stop loss in all my trades it is important for my strategy and it helps me control de risk and managing my capital.I dont see how is possible to be successful trading forex without using stop loss in the long run.

I agree, Eddie.

I want my stop-loss, at the time of entering a trade, to be wherever the price has to reach for my entry-reason no longer to be a valid one (in other words, I no longer want to be in the trade). Like many things, it’s a simple enough concept but its execution can require some experience and planning. With the short-ish intraday trades I do, it’s always felt natural to place stop-losses either just under recent support/just above recent resistance, or to define them in accordance with the current volatility (even if all one uses, to do that, is some kind of formula related to the current ATR).

This is something that real estate teaches us: when prices are pushed higher and you have to buy at that time, you are buying at a peak and the market rewards sellers with high returns… Then, the market rebalances significantly and you are stuck with that house because of negative equity (on the purchase price) and you not wanting to make a loss, so you wait for the market to come round again before selling at break-even or higher… This is an example of buying an asset without a stop loss; all you need is time to wait to see if prices will revert to mean or higher…

So it is for trading.

Sorry, PMH, but I personally think this is a really misleading , and potentially very dangerous and expensive, approach to holding losing positions in trading.

There is one huge difference between owning a house with negative equity and holding a position that is losing. Whilst you are living in your house, negative equity does not cost you anything. It is only a theoretical current valuation and does not affect your house running costs or your mortgage payments in any way. It only becomes relevant if you wish to sell and move or borrow money using your property as collateral.

But a losing trade requires margin cover - and the deeper the loss the more funds you have to put into your account to keep it going - and most traders, especially new traders, have limited funds available. If one keeps a trade open purely in the hope that one day it will return to mean or better then there can easily come a point where one’s funds are actually exhausted and the broker closes it out at the worst possible level leaving you broke and positionless and with no possibility to even continue trading.

One can look at pretty much any longer term chart such as the monthly EUR/USD below and spot levels where a losing position would still be losing many, many, years later. Would one imagine keeping the same position open for even 10 years or more? Would one’s life remain the same for so long that you would still wish to be following such a millstone? - and with the same broker? - and limiting one’s ability to trade other positions in the meantime? Of cpurse, one can say that these kinds of extreme peaks only occur very rarely but there are clearly many shorter term moves that can go deeply against one’s position and don’t even need to be the result of a dramatic move like Brexit, but can creep deeper and deeper whilst slowly tightening the thumbscrews around your wallet.

…and if the property with negative equity is not your own home, but a property owned by a property fund whose funds you are managing, then the pressure arising from your purchase decision might be very different! - but at least then you still have the possibility of a rental income whilst waiting for values to rise again :slight_smile:

In addition, I believe that trading, by definition, requires a reason for each trade. And that reason must include at least four aspects:

  1. which direction we are expecting

  2. at what level we wish to take our profit

  3. at what level do we conclude that our reasoning behind (1) was wrong or has changed

  4. at what price do we close our trade if the level (3) is reached

I do not believe that holding on to a position regardless of events solely on the expectancy that one day it will come right is trading. There might be other circumstances why one might do this, but it is surely not a basis for leveraged trading?

But that’s just my view, PMH :slight_smile: