Newbie question about after a trade has been placed

I’ve only been trading on a play money game platform so far. This affords me the luxury of placing one or two trades, logging out, and coming back later to see what happened. It’s easy to not worry about what is unfolding when no real money is at stake.

This method works better for me than sitting there and watching the trade unfold. I tend to make changes if the trade starts out against me and I also tend to grab tiny, negligible profits instead of trying to hit my TP, if I am sitting in front of the chart while my trade is alive.

Setting up the trade and walking away is what I would like to do with real money. I would like to start out with small time money so that possible losses don’t bother me and I can try to make a transition from playing to trading.

Barring a catastrophe in which my SL didn’t get executed, is this something that many traders do? (the few that I have talked to NEVER leave an open trade to walk away from their computer screens to go about their day but I argue that if you have a TP/SL set, then the trade isn’t really “open”)

Thanks.

Welcome to the world of forex Eric! I do not know about other traders but this is what I do. I always place my profit level and my stoploss level whenever I’m in a trade. Obviously, when I’m away from the laptop, I set my SL and forget it. However, when I’m in front of the monitor, I don’t place a stoploss entry. I set an alarm on my chart about five pips away from my predetermined stoploss price. I like to see if I should close the trade manually or let it run pass my SL and rebound. This is all based on the price action. The only time SL is not triggered on the set price is during NFP, rate decision, etc. I close all of my trades regardless if I’m in the money or not. Slippage during major news time is huge! Good luck with your trading.

follow ur system.its boring.but it makes money

probably the most underrated piece of advice. +1 excellent…something even I need to work on.

Yes, it’s better not to trade on news, esp. at the very beginning of your trading career.

As for SL and TP orders, I try to set them each time I open a trade. I helps me to control over the situation: I know my goals, I know how much I am going to win and how much I am ready to lose. Otherwise I will change my trading decision hundreds of times and lose for sure.

Yes, it’s better not to trade on news, esp. at the very beginning of your trading career.

As for SL and TP orders, I try to set them each time I open a trade. I helps me to control over the situation: I know my goals, I know how much I am going to win and how much I am ready to lose. Otherwise I will change my trading decision hundreds of times and lose for sure.

I set a Stop and Target when I initially place the trade and then walk away. I got into Forex to make money while having time for other things, so that flexibility was one thing that attracted me to it. If I enter a trade in the first place then I was obviously convinced of my logic, so sitting at the screen just opens me up to the temptation to make adjustments. Next time I am trading, I obviously look in on any open trades and have a look. My strategy allows for trailing Stops etc., so I will do this. But just sitting and watching a trade play out? I did this when I started out and found that, for me, it raised the stress level. If your strategy is good then you will come to trust it, and trust where it had you set the parameters of your trade, in my experience.

(Should caveat this, I only trade on the Hourly chart and upwards, so my trades are generally not ‘busy’.)