why stoploss too big is leading to loss?

[fxpioner]

hi, everyone, I am a newbie here, when I trade, I like to set my stoploss hundreds pips, so I can close my trades daily with profit, but when the big trend turned to against my favor, I got stuck, sometimes, I was lucky, got out and broke even, or gained a little bit within days, sometimes, I had to cut off all the positions with big loss. by the way, I am part time trader, can't watch the market all the time, I like to listen any professional traders advises... thanks in advance!

[trading801]

hi there and welcome..

it seems like you have a problem with proper money management..

It is imho the BEST tip for forex..

have you read the babypips school? if not.. PLEASE go there and read it .. not clear? READ IT AGAIN.

once done, if you have time, go to my blog and read about proper money management. I have written a few articles on it from my own experience.. hope it will help you too.

lastly, if you are not ready, dont start live. Demo first.. if you MUST trade live, do it slowly to gain experience.. no need to rush as the market will be there for you

cheers

[tymen1]

I take it that you have a reasonably good trading strategy.

Now you have to set up a risk/reward ratio.

That is, you have to set up a stop loss (which you do already) and also a target profit. (which I assume you are not doing).

The target profit sets the reward.

The target profit (reward) must always be bigger than the risk.

For example if your risk/reward is 1:2, that means you can lose 2 trades for every win to break even.

This way you will always remain ahead.

Hope this helps.

[TalonD]

If you can't stay in front of the charts try the 1hour, that's what I do, check in once an hour or two.

I often have 50 to 100 pips stop, but make sure the lot size is such that your stop only represents about 2% of your account.

One thing I don't do is set a take profit (most of the time) I feel like that limits how much I can make. I'd rather close a trade manually when I see price action changing.

[simonjf77]

Originally Posted by TalonD

One thing I don't do is set a take profit (most of the time) I feel like that limits how much I can make. I'd rather close a trade manually when I see price action changing.

This is the same for me. ALWAYS set a stop loss but a take profit for me is not always needed. Most times I've used a TP Iv'e cut my ptofits short.

[rossoclaudio]

Hello, I have tried to attach to this reply an Excel sheet that I have created, that you can use to calculate either the max amount of pips that you can allow yourself to risk, or the correct position size, if you want to place your stop at a specific distance from the current market price.

There are two sheets in it. - Hope you can use it!


Hmm - I get this msg, so apparantly I can't upload excel sheets (sorry, first post on babypips)

(Risk Management Tool2.xls:
Invalid File)

[fxpioner]

Hi, friends, thanks a lot. Ok, I learn one thing here, don't set TP, let it runs, then take more profit. I usually set my TP for 20pips to 40pips, I don't have patient wait for days to get more pips.

Trader801, I did read your blog, it's useful, I will read it daily, specially for EUR/USD trading information, that's the only pair I trade right now. thanks again. cheers.

[Valkryder]

SL should be set according to what time frame you are trading. In a longer time frame expect to be stopped out frequently if you use tight stops. If you get stopped out on most trades, you are going to bleed to death.

[Valkryder]

Originally Posted by simonjf77

This is the same for me. ALWAYS set a stop loss but a take profit for me is not always needed. Most times I've used a TP Iv'e cut my ptofits short.

I tend to have the opposite problem. If I set a TP and cannot monitor my account closely, I usually make more pips than if I close it manually because I don't have to resist the temptation to close the trade early.

[Jason Rogers]

Originally Posted by fxpioner

hi, everyone, I am a newbie here, when I trade, I like to set my stoploss hundreds pips, so I can close my trades daily with profit, but when the big trend turned to against my favor, I got stuck, sometimes, I was lucky, got out and broke even, or gained a little bit within days, sometimes, I had to cut off all the positions with big loss. by the way, I am part time trader, can't watch the market all the time, I like to listen any professional traders advises... thanks in advance!

Also the currency pair you are picking is important as well. Your strategy needs a pair that ranges with few breakouts and trends. Look for pairs with low volatility such as EUR/CHF. The ATR indicator is one way to determine low volatility pairs.