Never close a trade, and set your limits sky high!

How many of you have closed a position…only to see the trade continue to make gains – without you in it?

Why should we EVER allow a trade to hit the limit? Why cap our gains? I am suggesting that you have a limit in mind, and when your trade is above it…set your stop VERY tight…if the trade keeps going in the right direction…KEEP MAKING MONEY! If it turns south, you almost immediatly stop out. NO HARM…NO FOUL.

Thoughts?

Nice plan… Easier said than done though.

I prefer to just keep the one in the hand, rather than to hope for the two in the bush.

Its not difficult, i do it all the time. Instead of closing out your trade, just move the stop really tight.

Don’t think too much about it, profit is profit. Greed will send you broke. Think about compounding your profits over the long term not trying to “win” the market.

Greed will send you broke? Rokz…we are talking about money here right? And the name of the game…is to get as much of it as you possibly can. Are you suggesting that…rather than set the stop very tight after you have accomplished your goal, you are advocating simply closing the trade? What is the downside of my suggestion? Dont close the trade…just put the stop about 5 pips below the current rate. If it hits the stop…so be it. If not…there could be many more gains ahead. After that point…its all gravy.

Okay… Fine. I get that. But that’s not what you described…

Aside from that minor discrepency, how many more pips would you have put in the bank had you closed out prior to moving the stop up tight?

If you want the bigger moves, scaling in, and scaling out is more what you should be looking at. But I found that I started making money when I stopped holding on for the home runs, and just kept banking base hits. Those grand slams are attractive, but not common. How many traders do you think panicked, and turned their longs into shorts on the E/U yesterday when it did that little hiccup? I happened to make some change both ways. I’m not stuck in the thinking that I need to get ALL of a move, only a piece of each one. I’m out of the market more than I’m in it.

It’s not prudent to let a winner turn into a loser, nor is it smart to let a big winner return to break even. I can’t tell you HOW many 100 pip winners I had that turned around and stopped me out at B/E, or +1. Take what the market gives you, and keep it. That’s the name of the game.

+1

life’s too short for boring cars and cheap wine.

Hi Rokz and MT,
I think you’ve misunderstood Akantardjian; I believe what he meant is this: instead of setting a T/P at a certain level, place a stop-loss like 5 pips below it (for a long position), once price has reached where you would originally have exited the trade. Then, if price continues to move in your direction for 15 pips, just follow it with your S/L; this way, you’ll benefit from the maximum movement in your direction while being save from being brought down below your original target by the closely-placed S/L.
In other words: use a trailing stop and place it as closely to the price as your broker will permit.
You’ll need to be there watching the chart at least until price has moved some way in your direction, of course, so this not feasible for everybody.

O.

Do people on this thread just disagree for the sake of disagreeing?

If you are a day trader, and you are watching the trade live…and you see a trade approaching your target…

My point is, rather that letting the trade hit your target and stopping out…just set the stop right under the mark. If the trade still continues to go in a favorable direction…great! More money for you! If it turns for the worse, you are only risking a few pips. The risk/reward is excellent!

Thanks Akantardjian. I think you’ve a brilliant idea. As Oliver said it 's a manual trailing stop. How many pips have you usually set? Anyway, I think I’ll try it. Again thanks for sharing.

Not sure it’s “brilliant”, but hey…I’ll take it :slight_smile:
I usually set it about 5-10 pips lower/higher than my target price. VERY limited downside, UNLIMITED upside.

It’s wonderful. Thanks.

You are not mentally prepared for forex, you are not mentally prepared to follow a plan. WHen i close a winning trade it is because my plan tells me so, and yes sometimes price goes on and on upon my direction but it is caused by a different sum of events that were not on my original set up. It is better to study this new events and set a newer trade than rely the original trade on a merely too dam good luck.

Regards.

I understand Mr Gone’s comment but in the same vein it is simply the OP’s plan to take profits in this manner not that he cannot follow a plan.

It is an interesting idea, one that I certainly never thought of and I have been studying forex for a couple years, I feel though with a tight 5 pip SL you will end up getting stopped out very often because of just random price movement and volatility and that one the rare occasion that price moves sharply in your direction you will bank some extra but over the long run it will probably even out. Have you tried back testing this idea with 1. setting a TP and 2. setting a trailing SL to be able to compare any difference in results?

ak i understand what your saying in fact i did that just yesterday with euro usd and was over 160 bucks in about an hour i see no problem with what your doing its pretty exciting to trade like that too lol

While i can see and agree with both sides of this argument… I think ultimately it comes down to the trade and the trading style of the trader. They have to go by what they feel comfortable with and some may not be able to baby sit all their trades to keep the stop rolling…

I never understand why people end up bickering over trading styles, if you both make money, all is good!

Happy Trading

Regards

Sanj

No attacks, just opinions)))))
Yeah, set a TS at TP…not going to hurt but a few pips…Nothing new…thats why they have TS’s.
Just from personal experience…and dependent on market sentiment…setting a low TS ant TP, generally gets you stopped out and you lose a few pips…for me, i take full profit if i can…just my experience and maybe because of my system…but i am a scalper. Sometimes i only go for one pip + spread, and setting TS at TP (for me) could net me a 5 pip loss. So in my system, i have nothing to gain.

To Mr. (Far) Gone:

[B]“You are not mentally prepared for forex, you are not mentally prepared to follow a plan.”[/B]

Considering the fact that you dont know me, i think its quite a stretch to suggest that my strategy – WHICH HAS WORKED AGAIN AND AGAIN – somehow renders me mentally unprepared. To be honest, i think your comments are a lot more revealing about you and your mental state, than anything else. Furthermore…its quite obvious that you are a miserable person who gets pleasure from taunting people on newbie forex sites…pretty pathetic if you ask me. A clear symptom of someone who has tried everything they can think of, and still loses money. Grow up…

[B]“WHen i close a winning trade it is because my plan tells me so, and yes sometimes price goes on and on upon my direction but it is caused by a different sum of events that were not on my original set up.” [/B]

Thanks for making my point. Sometimes when you are ready to close out a trade…it keeps going in your favor. Closed minded people like yourself will never take advantage of it, while people thinking outside of the box will reap the profits.

[B]“It is better to study this new events and set a newer trade than rely the original trade on a merely too dam good luck.”[/B]

And…it is possible to do both. In this case, One doesnt cancel the other! GOOD DAY SIR!

You are right, i tried and tried and tried, blew up three accounts doing exactly what you are doing, writing in forums just like you are doing, review my older posts, are exactly what you are posting now. Yes, price goes back but when, your technique works until your account is off. Belive me it happens, it will happen to you, if you are not humble with the power of the market the market will humble you.

Today i analise my trading very carefuly having in mind the posibily of loss. When it happens, because oftenly it does, i remain confident because it was a controled, responsable and planned loss. The only thing we can control is the loss. I have a maximun quote of loss wich is two per week.

I notice pride in your message, restrain yourself or the market will do it, belive it hurts, oh pain, painful pain.

[B]GOOD DAY SIR![/B] that sound like a teenager facing an older guy who is about to give him a real beat up but the older guy is a Krav Maga expert and he has the power to subdue Chuck Norris but he will use his power only in self defense, he will let the school of ard knocks to discipline this boy. This boy will learn to chill over when he wakes up in an hospital connected to a Siemens breathing machine.

If, i mean if, you become a succeful trader, you will laugh at this post and you will recall when you were acting like a teenager. If not, you will continue with the same atittude.

The bottom line:

The only thing i am realy afraid of is my own pride.

Lol I did this my £800 account it made £700 in a few days & then I watched come all the way back & hit my stop… It might work you probably want to set up a risk:reward ratio so at least you have a target to get out at otherwise the spread will eat you…