Hi I am new to this forum, Been struggling for a year now to keep my account running and recently stopped using stop losses. Big risk but I am slowly regaining my original deposit? Please explain why everyone on YouTube is so insistent on stop losses as it is what is causing us to loose more trades?
Is there any free trader forums where you actually get help without anyone spamming you all the time?
I use MT5.
there are so many different views all over you do not know who to believe and what path to follow.
Please help me I am 60 and with no finances need to make this work. Any real help would be appreciated.
Thanks
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When you keep Stop Loss, Shady Broker (Almost every Forex broker is Shady Broker) has a target they can fulfill to make you loss.
Instead of Stop Loss, use MT5 Script or EA to add Virtual Stop Loss, which close your Trade when it hit virtual stop loss and this is best way to avoid getting scammed by broker due to Stop Loss
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Are you trying to say that they can close your order as long as it is near the SL?
Hi thank you for your reply. I am new please explain to me how to do that. It would be great.
It is a work of MQL5 Programming Language.
Logic is, Loop through all the orders using For Loop.
Let say, 10 Point is Virtual SL
For Buy order : If Bid is below by 10 Point from Order entry price => Close the trade
For Sell Order : If Ask is above by 10 Point from Order Entry Price => Close the Trade
If you have no knowledge about coding, You can hire someone from https://www.freelancer.com/ or https://www.mql5.com/en/job (Recommend)
Yes, Almost every Forex brokers do. This is called Stop Loss Hunting or Stop Hunting.
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Even if you don’t set a stop-loss, your broker will close your position when their margin requirement for that trade is not matched by the available capital in your account. So you can either make a decision to close the trade at the best (or least bad) price or you can let someone else make the decision for you.
Pretty sure if you check your trading journal and the chart you can definitely tell if a Broker is scamming you or not. Even so, this does not mean that Stop Loss is not essential in my opinion. Even if you have good amount of capital to support a drawback for example, you still need a Stop Loss. Especially if you trade Gold.
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Balancing the frequency and magnitude of losses is crucial in trading. One option is to forgo using stop-loss orders, allowing for extended periods of profitable trades while enduring occasional drawdowns, but risking catastrophic losses if a trade turns strongly against you. Alternatively, cutting losses swiftly acknowledges when a trade is moving unfavorably, though it may lead to more frequent small losses. Yet, even this approach doesn’t ensure complete protection against wiping out your account. Nevertheless, the ability to cap losses is invaluable as it enables traders to adapt to new information that could invalidate their initial forecasts.
What I started doing is to add a trailing stop as soon as the trade goes positive. At least that helps a bit with the risk. But if I add a 2% stop loss and my account is small then I keep getting Stopped out. I am open to any and all Suggestions as it is part of the learning curve.
Thanks a lot
Almost every broker do Stop Loss Hunting and Stop Hunting. It difficult to find specially when your doing algo trading. And even you find it, Broker will say market got fluctuated that particular time or spread was high, it due to natural slippage and bla bla bla and you will never win.
I never said not to use Stop Loss, i said not to use classic Stop Loss in which brokers see all the details. Instead use Virtual Stop Loss by MT4/MT5 Script or EA.
Hi, different factors may affect.
Your stop loss is not adjust to strategy type or time frame.
Your strategy lose profitability,
The market has changed and your strategy doesn’t prepared to this environment.
Regards Greg
Just to re-cap what you probably already know -
- the price level for the stop-loss is found using the chart and technical analysis
- once you have the right price level, adjust the size of the position so that the loss does not exceed 2% of your account capital
- what this means is that you need to identify the stop-loss’s price level before you open the trade.
If you cannot see a suitable stop-loss price level on the chart, then use the volatility of your market to tell you how far away it should be. For example use ATR and set your stop-loss at a multiple of ATR away from the entry price.
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This is brokers using Metatrader you’re talking about.
Don’t imagine that CFD brokers offering their customers MT4/MT5 to trade from are typical of “the trading world,” @shanmugapradeep
Thankfully, they’re not.
(And by the way they’re not really “brokers” either.)
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OP clearly mentioned he is using MT5. Additionally, almost every Forex Trader application which support Algo Trading allows you to work with your own codes. Like cTrader where you can code virtual stop loss as cBot and similarly for all other Trader application.
Even some platform use Online Trader application like TradingView and In that part also you can code a virtual stop loss and some platform even provide API which you can use to code with python or javascript, etc, etc.
Possibilities are never ending
I remember watching Jessica Laine ytube video where she said she don’t use stop loss but advised her students to use stop loss
Not sure this was covered. How long did you demo trade? Sounds to me like you you’re either risking too much in your position size or your SL is too tight, or both. Good solution, if you can do it, is trade the same position sizes, bigger SLs, but add more funds to your account.
I’ve been trading live for almost 16 months now. My balance didn’t turn positive until I stopped using SLs and always set TPs. I also watched my trades like a hawk, but I have time to do that. I know that’s not possible for everybody. I also took profit earlier than I used to, so I think a couple things all contributed to my success. Also cut losers earlier.
Mainly scalped or did intraday trades. Then near end of last year, started adding SLs after getting caught in some huge moves while I slept. I didn’t want to close the trades down to realize the losses, so I waited and waited. On a couple occasions I had to wait weeks from price to reverse. I got lucky. That happened less so than my wins. But still bad enough to make me worry. Start of this year I started trading more intraday and swing, with stops on every trade, and that just didn’t work for me. Losses piled up. Lost close to 10% of my account. So I’m back to lower time frames, holding for no longer than a couple hours.
Not saying that’s the fault of SLs, just doesn’t work for me on every trade.
So you got some things to try.
Good sir. What you are calling can easily be identified. If you can read charts and journals, nothing goes unnoticed. Also, even if a slippage happens, it is shown IN THE CHARTS. Ok, let’s say the broker lies, the charts do not lie. If they tamper with your trade, you can easily tell, and if the broker is regulated, you can file a complaint. Even worse, if you used your card for deposits, you can charge back. So what you’re saying doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. Not that I’m not a fan of coding, I absolutely love it and encourage it, but you are spreading false knowledge. Don’t judge every broker because of few bad apples.
So, I should probably chime in here, since what I am about to say has not been covered.
The reason you are getting stopped out too frequently is that your stop loss is not in the right place. This problem can be broken down into two sub-problems:
- You are not trading in the right direction
- Your stop loss is too close
What’s interesting is that these two conditions are related to each other and can happen at the same time.
For example,if you are constantly trying to go short during a strong bull trend, you are trading in the wrong direction. Your stop loss will be very close, since you will probably place it at the last higher high.
If you are going to fade a trend, you must at least put your stop above a measured move target so it will have room to move against you. It would be easier, however, just to go in the directon of the current trend.
Even then, you must put your stop at the previous higher low in an uptrend, and place it at the last lower high in a down trend. This technique takes the ambiguity out of placing stop losses.
It also requires you to be able to understand basic trend theory and price action.
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Hello! Actually, stop losses are crucial for risk management, especially to prevent large losses. It sounds like you need a strategy that fits your risk tolerance better. For supportive trading communities, you’re already in a great place 
Freely ask questions, and use the resources available to find the best strategy for yourself.
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