Hi Everyone,
I’ve been demo trading on and off for about 18 months now and my results have been varied. I feel that I now have a system in place that I’m try to stick to and is profitable. I started live trading in Jan 2010 and am doing ok.
With my current strategy I normally get a 20-30 pip win/lost early on in the week. Then maybe 2 or 3 trades a week which can get me anything between 10pips and 500pip(rare but has happened a couple of times). These second trades can last a day or even longer(10 days is the longest). My stop loss is set around the 50pip range depending on ATR.
What I’d like to know is,
Do you target X pips per day and once youve got them you jump out until the next day or do you have days where you make stupid abouts of pips and then nothing for days or even weeks?
Nope, as long as I’m not tired, I will continue to trade. Those who suggest stopping after you reach a certain goal have succumb to gambler’s fallacy. Statistics works, win or lose. The only time I stay out is if my system tells me to stay out :).
In my opinion trying to target a set amount of pips per day is a bad idea. The market moves how it wants to move, and if the pips just aren’t there then trying to chase them to meet a quota will just lead to losses.
Plus, for certain types of money management, the number of pips you make are irrelevant to your profit/loss. I don’t even keep up with how many pips I get.
Don’t worry about pops, worry about good trades. Depending on market conditions, I might put a profit target around an area of support/resistance. Doesn’t matter to me how many pips were in profit.
Take what the market gives you. That simple, kind of. Just because you hit your target I do not believe you should stop trading, nor should you over trade just because you’ve got a winning trade. You should just continue to trade the way you have been. If you get 30 trades in 1 day and no more for the rest of the month then so be it. I’ve had trades (single trade) where I made my % gain for the month off of that sole trade, but I continued to take every valid trade according to my strategy for the rest of that month.
Do you target X pips per day and once youve got them you jump out until the next day or do you have days where you make stupid abouts of pips and then nothing for days or even weeks?
My goals are money based or % gain based not pips. My money management and risk changes as I win or lose. If I reach a goal I reset my MM or quit for the day. Sometimes I quit for the day but if I am doing well I keep going after I adjust my MM. Once I reset my MM a portion of my gains are locked in my account, at least for the rest of the day;).
I have made the bad trade when I am close to my goal or trying for the round number gain its tempting to let a trade run a little longer in the hopes of a little more gain when I am close to my goal. That scenario costs me money most of the time. For me that’s the biggest risk with having a set goal. My trading system depends on it though so I just do my best to handle each little trade the same no matter how close or far I am from my goal. Easier said than done for me sometimes.
Thanks guys,
Some interesting insight. Good point about the over trading, I sometimes see trades that almost fit my strategy and because I’ve not meet my daily pip/%, I want to take it but I will have to be disiplined and only take the trades that [U]do[/U] fit.
I follow the strategy and dont let emotion come into it.I was up 450 pips on a trade the other day and it went down to 150.I could have taken the 450 and a lot of people would have but it was not within my strategy so i didnt.Some days you win some you lose.I average about 100 a week though and spend 30 minutes at night every day placing trades.I dont look at the screen all day till nighttime till i pick the trades so the potential pips i could have maide by jumping out dont bother me.
