do you set a % gain limit for yourself per day.
as in once you acheive that return in a day,you stop trading no matter how soon you acheive it?
[B]or do you trade till you are getting the trades?[/B]
i am confused,i have got 3.7% return in last 16 hours or so.
i think it is good for a day.
but i am getting entry pattersn now also.
so do you stop trading after a set return or continue?
pl. help
hi, i trade longer term mostly, i do set a goal of 15% per month and if hit i will stop till next month. on the other side of that i put 8% of my account aside at the start of the month, if i lose this im out for the rest of the month, and at least for 2 weeks.
I completely understand what you are thinking, personally if i had a mega winner, ie. 3 trades all hitting the TP overnight, i would take a few days off to calm down:cool:.
Although we know that 3 wins in a row has no bearing on the outcome of the next trade, its toooooo easy to give back gains, therefore i take a break.
I have started scalping recently though, and will likely stop for the day if i make 2% or so.
I think its more important to put a limit on the amount one can lose, as when things start going wrong, especially intraday, they can quickly get out of hand.
If i said “would you be happy losing 50% of your account tomorow?” you would clearly say no! therefore put rules in place to stop this!
Personally I dont set limits on gains. If a setup occurs, I take it.
I do set limits on losses.
It might be worth analysing historical trades and determining you max gain achieved through the day, and then how much you subsequently give back. I personally found that there was no benefit from quitting after a set amount, in fact the opposite was true as I was potentially cutting out the largest winning days.
I could however envisage strategies where the opposite would apply. I guess you have to measure the impact over a backtest, or historical trades and determine what makes sense. After that, you might need to work on the psychological aspects of the impact that might have.
There’s always a tendancy to want the current trade to be a winner, or to finish positive for the day, week, month etc. As a generalisation, if it intuitevly feels good, its probably the wrong thing to do.
Setting limits, to me, implies that you are not confident in your trading technique(s). Either that, or you are not mentally there.
I don’t understand how setting limits can benefit anything, personally.
I have trading hours that I will try to stick to, but even then I may leave my laptop running in the evening just to glance at. If a setup is there, I will take it.
I can see, maybe, where you will walk away for the day if trades are going against you. However, I would only do this if either I was losing money because I was personally trading badly (ie, not according to my plan) or if the market was acting strangely (think very major news release, such as a global or major national incident).
Cord
Not necessarily…
Sometimes a limit is good to avoid overtrading and been overconfident. But, i dont think “limit” is the correct word. I would call it “goal”.
I have weekly goals and monthly goals, but not daily goals because the market sometimes doesnt give you opportunities everyday.
I have a goal and much more important a loss limit. I make a few trades a day and don’t like to leave them open when I am not watching. I use a daily period to evaluate my goals. My goals and limits are dollar amounts based on percentages of my account balance, the goal might not change from day to day depending on my trading success. If I traded longer term I would look at a weekly period to evaluate my goals.
I think a goal and a loss limit can be very good to have if the amounts you are aiming for are reasonable. They are not necessary many traders trade with the idea I will take what I can from the market today or this month and it works for them. For me making as many trades as I do I found a little more structure in the plan about this was a good thing.
I have set times when I am looking for live trades which gives me a sort of timetable within the working day.
Whatever happens within those hours is my days results… good or bad 
I started out with daily and weekly targets but they played havoc with my emotions, so now I look for monthly % capital gains which smooths the ride.
Plan your trades & trade your plan, if your trade plan tells you to trade 24/5 at full tilt then go for it. Why stop at any given figure or percentage? How will you know what that figure is?
Surely the idea of goals is to achieve & better them, then better them again tomorrow.
Nope, I don’t have any particular goal. I take what the market gives me every time it gives it to me.
It could be argued that if you really dont know what those figures are then you shouldnt really be trading. In reality, if you dont know those figures you are gambling, which is fine but its certainly not working to any form of plan, its the complete opposite of course.
All this depends on-
1- Your trading style, totally mechanical, or do you have to use, intuition or gut feel?
2- how well you cope with emotions?
if you have a mechanical system, then you do not have quite so many decisions to make. But if you require to use a bit of gut feel and trade in a discretionary manner, then the psychological impact of a string of winners, or loser, can affect ones ability to make logical choices.
Again this will depend on how well you cope with emotions, but for many traders, fear and greed could ruin a good days trading. I have read plenty of stories where traders pushed their luck after a winning streak, and ended up giving back all the gains.
just my opinion…
I do this as well.
I’ve found that having targets leads to overtrading.
naah, no targets man. just take the best setups that come your way.
Here is my take: we should be trading and not gambling. If we are trading it should be because we have confidence in what it is we are doing, the systems we are utilizing and the money management rules and regulations we live by.
Just because you had a streak where you executed well and your outcome was more than even you expected… does not mean you should simply stop. This isn’t lottery ticket buying. If our system works (and it seems in this hypothetical it indeed does) then the more often we utilize the system the more often we score winning trades. When you voluntarily bench yourself for winning you are losing time to continue to implement your winning system.
All of this being said, there are times to “take a chill pill” as it were. If you psychology is off, either from excitement from a big win or dread from a loss or series of losses… then yes take a break. We should endeavor to be methodical and thorough. We enter when the time is right (we don’t tell the time to be right) and we exit under the same circumstances.