Right now I’m mostly trying to pick good positions to enter. Stop losses are pretty easy to define based on what I observe. Take profit lines on the other hand are very hard. I may set myself to t/p at 10 pips. Price will move to 8 pips and turn right around. So now instead of making a few pips and jumping in on the opposite ride, I sit for long periods of time waiting for my trade to reverse again and hit my t/p line. Maybe it will never come back.
I read over and over to stick with your plan, and even stick with your s/l and t/p. I’ve waited whole days when price almost touched then turns around and never comes back. I want to close and take what I can, but I keep reminding myself to stick to the original position settings even though they burn me over and over. I could take a few bucks in less than a 1/2 hour if I cash out before my t/p when I feel ansty, or stick to my guns and wait all day to maybe break even on one trade. I’m furious. Such a waste of precious time.
???
I had one or two good days, but now I’m back to the ultimate loser.
From what I’ve learned so far, I get the impression that if you enter a position and set your stops, your stops are set. If you miss your target profit and things reverse or you get stopped out, it was a losing trade. My last trade eventually stopped out hours later. I could have closed it early for profit, then jumped in again to ride the reverse and profited. But instead I let it rot, watching instead of acting and lost out completely. I feel helpless following a plan that has no room for change.
What you said in that last post is what I think a lot of people get lost with when trying to work a system with profit to loss ratios.
From my experience, if I were to set a trade, stops are a given fact because I would use either a previous swing high or low. The fact is that they have already happened. So for someone to come say ok I think price will move this way and you set your “x” number of pips above/below the previous high/low and you want to achieve a 1:1 ratio with this trade, you as the trader have no way of telling if the trade will go the amount that your stop loss is set. This use to effect me because I started to realize that I was accepting this certain amount for a loss no matter what, but had no idea if price would move the same in my favor. I then ended up starting to take partial profits but soon realized as well that this still puts you against the odds since you are always accepting a set stop loss but limiting your profit by either profit taking or your trade turning against you. For this I believe you need a method that has a high winning percentage in terms of your profit to s/l ratio just so your staying ahead of the game.
First thing I would say is that the market is ever flowing, so for you to have a “set” t/p and s/l is kinda silly in my opinion.
I know alot of people do it, and are good at it, but I just dont see it.
Learn some reversal signals, adapt them into your trading.
I like to Hedge (some people hate it, some love it)
Here is how I do it.
Lets say you enter Long at 1.5050 looking for a t/p of 1.5150 and a s/l of 1.5000. So we have a 2:1 ratio.
Well, I see a reversal signal (I like the “V” and upside down “V” pattern). At 1.5090. Hmmmmmmmmm Do I close now with profit, or hope that this is a hic-up in the trend…well there is your answer NEVER HOPE, just react. I see a good Sell signal, so I open a sell order at 1.5090 w/ a t/p of 1.5000 (buys stop loss) and a s/l of 1.5150 (buys take profit)
Enter the Hedge.
IF the price goes up I have: +100 pips for the buy and -60 pips on the sell = +40 pips.
IF the price goes down I have: -50 pips from the buy and +90 from the sell = +40 pips.
I MADE THESE NUMBERS UP ON THE SPOT, IT IS NOT MENT TO SAY YOU WIN EVERY SITUATION.
But in the worse case situation, you might end up w/ -50 on your buy order and say +20 on your sell…so you may have lost, but you minimized your loss…and that is 1/2 the game.
Thanks for your replies! I’m getting better at noticing good reversals and making better trades, but I frequently still miss a criteria or two (even though I chosen them myself) and make an either poor trade right out of the bag, or a good trade that doesn’t make it to great. I guess I’m viewing stops as hard lines and I feel guilty if I change them, even when making a change is better for my balance. Hedging sounds like a good idea if you get yourself into a situation. I’ve thought about it, but didn’t realize it was called hedging.
Many traders get greedy or get on a high of making money. They try to make as much as they can as fast as they can. This is trouble. Rapid gains of currency happen, but they’re not common. If it’s not common, you can ride the wave, but eventually it’s going to stop and you’re going to burn. Take it slow. Don’t aim to get rich on one trade. Aim to get rich by slowly making money over time.
Good Luck
