i went live on thursday with �200, and that went up to �227 today, so i’m pretty happy with that :), as this is just a learning account. however, i found a problem with myself that might not be professional. what i’ve found myself doing is taking profit way too early (i.e. after around 5 - 12 pips) although my original t/p level says i should take more than that. most of the time, the price does go to the original t/p that i predicted. as a result, i got many winning trades (9) and only a few losing ones (2), but the losing trades are big losses compared to the winning ones (around 3 times more!).
is it only me that does this? does it often get corrected over time?
Try using a trailing stop, or move up both the stop loss and take profit if you are winning on a trade. That will “save” your profits without closing it, giving you the opportunity to earn even more.
you need to estabilsh a reward/risk ratio, other way you are going to blow your account soon. A good ratio would 2:1. Maybe you won�t win 9 times, only 5 or 6, but that way you limit your losses and let your profits run.
I believe Tonymand said something like this - “Stops are a skill” just like entries are. Using trailing stops you need to use caution, too close and you wind up exiting too soon for little profit, too far away and you blow your risk/reward ratio.
I think first and formost, its just that you have only really begun to trade with real money, so its natura to get excited / worried as your watching price action. This is why you are closing your positions early, i would think every one new to FX goes through this phase.
I wouldnt worry about it, over time the excitement wears off and you’ll just be watching numbers on the screen.
I know I did the same thing, even now 11 months trading, I still get the odd “oh close it now” feeling, though that tends to be when I have a trade really going in my favour.
Trailing stops are good under the right circumstances, but i tend to use them only if i have to be away from my computer, and it takes a bit of trial and error to get them set where you want to allow your trade to run with out getting knocked out early.
As Outspan recommended, once your up a certain number of pips, move your SL to BE and let the trade go. Its basically a free trade from that point on.