Interested to know how traders manage stoploss when predicted trade move reverses almost as soon as trade is placed. I use a hard stop and EA managed trailing stoploss which only activates if the trade is in profit. What I want to do is manage the stoploss when trade is losing. Do you look at bars and assess downward movement and then tighten stoploss or use some other approach. Don’t want a discussion on the merits of stoploss but practical ideas and thoughts how tightening stoploss in a loss trade can be implemented.
I don’t fiddle with stoplosses. A stoploss is a stoploss, you chose it for a reason.
When in a losing trade your emotions are in overdrive, you become unrational and the change is likely that you throw all your trade rules aside because you think it goes bad.
However, when placed well it gives a trade some room to go south before it goes up again, so give the trade that room, your rules allow it. You maybe lucky sometime that cutting short saved you money, but in the long run your trading is getting on a slippery road.
It is like eating yellow snow, you shouldn’t be doing it (Yeah, but i can be pineapplejuice, and I love pineapplejuice!)
But when I have a pattern in mind and a new stoploss level shows up, I move my stoploss to that level (technically it becomes a takeprofit. 
But you get the idea I hope.
I don’t like trailling stops either. They make me feel that I am uncertain about the trade and that I am in it with more money than I am comfortable with. When tight, it can kill perfect trades too soon to.
I tried not to discuss, but I had to give some practical consideration why no to fiddle the stoplosses.
i have a question about trailing stop losses…
is there an optimal level away from price that you should set them? It seems like no matter what I change it to, it gets taken out!
No there is no optimal level.
Usually traders might use a fixed amount of pips or a muliplier of the ATR as a trailing stops.
I am personally not a great fan of trailstops. I belief a stop is better placed at key level as support/resistance or high timeframe fibonnaci levels, but that is just a matter of style.
hi,
personally i look up for the charts draw different trend lines and use various technical indicators specially the exponential moving averages. after the full assessment i place my stop loss accordingly.
Generally speaking, my initial stop is determined based on the idea of “if the market goes here the trade probably isn’t going to work out”. From that perspective, fiddling around with your initial stop once you’re in the trade and losing doesn’t make a lot of sense. The one exception to that might be from a time perspective. If the market hasn’t turned in your direction within a given amount of time, it may be worth exiting or tightening. That needs to be based on testing your methodology, though.
thanks for the insight.
I do set a hard stop that trails when in profit, suits me and my style of trading. Was thinking that trailing stops are all about profits but there are occasions when a trade is in reverse soon after entry and not looking like it is going to go in the expected profit direction. At the moment I sit and watch and wonder until it hits the stop.
What I am looking for is what do you use to move the stoploss to limit losses in this instance? I am considering bar patterns over a period of time.