Everyone says never risk more than 2%.
I’m was fine with that, haven’t ever needed to. For example with scalping I’d risk 10 pips for a 1% stop with a tp of 10-20 pips. Now trading the 15M-1H charts a 20-30 pip stop will be needed. Risking 2% to make 3-5 is good statistically but maybe it would be better to half the lot and risk?
What’s your opinion?
Generally speaking - and this is only generally - the more frequently you trade the smaller the risk you want to take because of the potential impact of a run of bad results. This is very dependent on your win %, though. Either way, you shouldn’t just be looking at R:R.
this might not ba a very good opinion, but if you ask me, the less your risk the better. psychologically speaking, it has a better mind set that is better for trading forex, since one of the most common problems traders have is greed, and we all fall for temptation one way or another 
all the best. cheers 
I switched from 1/5 min charts to 15 and above only expecting to trade from 5-10 times a week. Currently working with a new system back testing preformed well on several pairs. Even though backtesting doesn’t prove much it helps my confidence. Today went well at the vary least.
Totally agree with you. Even if with lower risk the reward is lower so are the losses. IMO that makes perfect sense. Better for testing new strategies to.
Here’s what I was taught. Leverage on an account doesn’t matter. Switch it around from 10-50 and nothing changes other than how much margin it takes to buy a lot. Position vs account leverage on the other hand does. For example if you have a 10,000 dollar account mt4’s 1.0 lot (other trading platforms 10,000) would be $1 per pip on EUR/USD. This is 1:1 position vs account leverage. .5-1.5 trade leverage is ideal. Depending on trade circumstances 1.0-1.5 position leverage would be “I’m sure about this trade” and 5 would be “it looks good but maybe it’ll revers/have problems ect.”
Does that make sense?
If a position has a pip value of $1 for EUR/USD it’s a 10,000 unit position. If you’ve got a $1000 account and you’re trading that size then you’re not on 1:1 leverage. You’re on (10 x EUR/USD):1 leverage.
Thanks for the correction Rhodytrader. The point was it is generally safer to trade a lot equal to the account size.
Well, based on that logic it’s safer to trade a lot smaller than your account size. The thinking should be to trade the position size that gives you the risk level you’re after. In some cases that will mean the use of leverage. At other times it may not. Holding period tends to play a major part.
Thank you for all your help today! I’ve been reading books, trying to decide how much risk is best. Sometimes information overload happens, unfortunately. The reality of the fact is there is no real answer. It all depends on how much each individual is willing to risk, time frame, expected length of position, and trading method.
Instead of setting a specific pip stop I’ll be halving the risk to allow a recent high to be found on the 1H chart. At least this should be the case most of the time. Winning trades could be held for a week or more and losers would be filtered out within 24 hours of placing the trade.
Does this sound better? What’s your opinion on scaling in on higher lows and lower highs?
As with most things…test it out.
Just wanted to say that back-testing can actually be the most valuable tool that you can use. The results gained are dependent on your actual trading approach, but if you are taking a mechanical trading approach then the results gained are very accurate. Trading strategies that use creative trading or the opposite of mechanical trade entries will suffer with back testing.
For example, the way in which I trade is very much a ‘tick box’ approach. If certain features are occurring in the desired market then the trade will be taken. So back testing this is easy, and the results are near to 100% if not exactly 100% reliable. I also use the close price of all the candles for my analysis, and also enter on the close price. So, again, back testing is great. There is no way to hide, or manufacture results in a way that makes you happy.