I’m backtesting my current mechanical system. I’ve got my stop loss and take profit set, and I also have a time stop in case the trade just waffles around. As I’m recording my stats, I’m finding several trades that hit their time stop within 5 pips of the entry price. (My stops and TP’s are typically somewhere between 40 and 80.)
If this were football, I’d say a win is a win, but my statistical results are going to help determine changes I may make before I go live. So, my question is, should I count these very small moves in my W/L column?
Well it depends on the time frame your saying. But to be honest you can choose almost any pair and they will probably move around 40-80 pips on a daily easily. What’s your strategy entail? If you could explain it maybe we could add some insight.
Yeah, well, I’m not aiming for any big scores at this point. Well, I’m really new at this, so I’m basically using the Cowabunga system. Finding the trend on the four-hour chart, finding my entry on the 15-minute. I don’t know squat about fundamental analysis; this is a purely mechanical system. So I’m looking to take my profit in the first couple hours tops. Anything open during the day is closed by 4 PM, win or lose. I just started playing around with evening trades, but I haven’t figured out how to set a time stop and go to bed.
Well the question is what is your set TP/SL per trade and how much do you risk per trade?
Like for example you just said even if it’s open at 4pm win or lose you’ll close but surely if your TP is say 30-40 pips a pair will definitely make that movement in an entire day. Do you have a defined numerical TP/SL when you open a trade? (ex : TP : 50 pips / SL : 35 pips)
For example, when I open a trade I’m generally looking to grab anywhere between 75 - 400 pips. My SL areas are generally 40-250 pips. You can’t base taking profit via time but you should be anticipating where the pair will go via your analysis and what the system dictates. The same the system that gives you a valid signal for entry should also signal for you when to exit as well.
if u enter on 15m chart u don t really need 80 pips SL. just be mindfull of which time news apear and trade around them, or better yet don t trade the currency wuth the high impact news. have a pattern to get into the market and set that SL above that… backtest it and see how that turns out.