Do you know how many pips are the most appropriate level for SL?

For my current FX trading, I set an SL about 300 pips per trade, which is my margin level. Because I hope to win aggressively meanwhile keeping the SL level safe for most market volatile. Do you think that is appropriate? Any thoughts?

Rather than risking a fixed number of pips each time, consider setting your stop loss based on support and resistance levels. For example, if you place an order to buy, your stop loss could be set below a key support level. If you place an order to sell, your stop could be set above resistance.

After determining how many pips are appropriate based on support and resistance levels, you can set your trade size accordingly, so the dollar amount you risk is limited to 1% of your account balance. You may find this article helpful in understanding the rationale behind risking only 1% per trade: The Most Important Math in Trading | New Trader U

4 Likes

Hmm.It makes some sense, Thanks for your instant reply.

1 Like

My own backtested and holistically inspired SL - sits at 1832 pips - a nice convenient number which gives a comfort zone unlikely to be taken out - Unless - of course - you’re WRONG ! :rage:

1 Like

The magnitude of Loss when using a certain Stop Loss of a Number of Pips is increased with higher lot size with respect to your equity/balance and decreased with lower lot size with same regard to your equity.
The amount you risk on each trade, thus, is directly proportional to A) how many pips and B) what your lot size for the trade is and what your equity $ amount is.
This may seem obvious to some experienced traders, but needs to be brought to the attention of beginner traders.

1 Like

Yes, I know what you mean. I used to have 2000 pips margin level. which is especially helpful for large capital. For small capital say <10,000 I refer 1000 pips. for the whole balance.

1 Like

I do not use any fixed stop loss. It depends on the charts. As I trade on D1 my minimum stop loss is 50 pips. There is no maximum limit. But I do maintain risk reward ratio. My risk reward ratio is 1:2. If stop loss is 50 pips, take profit would be minimum 100 pips.

2 Likes

It depends on your trading strategy! By the way, don’t try to follow any specific number as SL; be flexible according to the market context.

2 Likes

IMO more realistic targets should be set. 300 pips on TP seems too much. Also what is that 2000 pips margin level? SL? 2000 pips? Are we talking about the same thing here: Pip is the 4 number after the comma, e.g. *,**1 meaning for EURUSD for example the price to change from 1.25000 to 1.45000, so it will happen when? In 2 years lol.
Like FOREX.com mentioned a SL should be fixed based on the current equity or balance and not more than 1-3%. There are tools that are useful and calculate those parameters automatically. I use Mini Terminal (many brokers offer it for free even on demo account) in Metatrader with a fixed lot size and SL risk at 2% of equity.

It is not fixes what is appropriate pips to set SL. We have to see market condition,lot size before deciding about these tools . with small lot one can choose higher pips . I prefer up to 40 pips for my trading needs. Not afford much pips , I have to do trading between these pips.

1832 looks like a very safe space for a position. But the wining space is limited as well. I prefer to all in my orders so I can win enough for each time which you may take a very long time say months or years to double your account.

50 pips are too dangerous for me I used to set SL at 40. Most of my order was stopped out.So I decided to make it larger.

If you trade one micro lot, then you are risking 10 cents per pip on a major currency pair like EUR/USD. That means, you could risk 50 pips, and that would be $5. If you have $500 in your trading account, then $5 would be 1% of your balance.

That’s why it’s important not to fixate on the amount of pips you are risking. You can change your trade size, so that the dollar amount you are risking is appropriate for your account regardless of the amount of pips you are risking.

1 Like

Nice to see your flexible trading plan on the SL tool! By the way, what do you do in the scalping? Till now above 40 pips? Or any especial plan?

What’s your trading type? Scalping or swing?

I usually look at these factors (in order of importance):

How strong the directional momentum is (RSI, strength of trend, Stochastic). Stop loss under support needs to be tighter depending on whether you are trading with the trend or “contrarian”, against the trend.
Risk to Reward Ratio of at least 1.5 to 1… so 50% more upside on the Take Profit level as you set for the Stop Loss
Maximum Favorable Excursion (MFE) and the MAE Maximum Adverse Excursion (MAE) which can be seen in the “Advance Statistics” section on any system’s performance record on MyFXBook. When interpretting MFE/MAE it is quite obvious to see how many pips is the cut off between those trades that recover and come into profit and those trades which eventually are closed as more substantial losers. I have analysed that at approximately 50 to 60 pips I need to start thinking about scaling out of a trade or initiate some type of Secondary “scaling in” trade.