This is a little bit crazy

Hi Guys,

I am trading USD/CAD on a demo account. I have setup the trading platform to have SL order at 15 pips and TP order at 2 pips.

The spread is about 6 - 7 pips at the moment. I buy at market (Buy Price = 1.3522). The setup in the tool automatically added 2 pips as the TP order (as setup by me) - I assumed it would add this to the price at which I bought it. But it actually added to the sell price (sell price = 1.3516 when order was placed). So the TP order was 1.3518 !! and buy was 1.3522 !! on this long order. I only noticed this after checking the summary ! Another lesson I guess. A very basic one perhaps ? Is this how your tool functions as well ?

Thank you

Congratulations on being the winner of the “polite understatement award” for 2016 (sounds very British, doesn’t it? :wink: ).

Please tell me that this is on demo only??

So you need the price to move 8-9 pips in your favour to gain 2 pips, and meanwhile your stop-loss is 7.5 times the size of your target? Have you worked out what win-rate you’ll need, overall, just to break even? (It’s a [I]scary[/I] calculation!).

To address your substantive point: trading platforms have a default setting regarding “which price it will add it to” and you [I]should[/I] be able to change this as a user-defined setting (consult either the manual or the help-desk: if you really [I]can’t[/I] change the default, and want to, then change the software!).

If I can ask a question, here: why are you trading like this

Hi Lexys,

Thank you for the reply.

Yes, this is a demo only :slight_smile:

I setup the 2 pip target on the “Preferences” settings. So when I place an order and click a checkbox to add TP order, it puts the value of the TP order at mkt price of the closing order + 2 pips. However I need it to add (Or subtract)the 2 pips to the Mkt Price of the opening order. I need to further explore the settings to change the defaults.

I do realize that we need to let the winners run and cut the losers short - and also the point you make about win-rate :slight_smile: I was not trying to learn or come up with a strategy however. I was just trying something out about how an indicator works so I was just placing default orders without looking closely at the direction and also the strategy and win-rate etc. I have been away for sometim from the trading and getting reacquainted with the basics ! and totally forgot about the spread - the confusion about the position it was showing was quite funny when I figured out what it was.

Another thing is - I am still working on strategy - but like you mentioned in one of your other notes - I may try to use SL order only as a cover. I would manually close the position well before that - in a way that would reflect a much better ratio of SL and TP. Still checking it out.

Thank you Again :slight_smile:

Your risk reward ratio is very poor, you need a lot of winners to even break even. Try to trade in a method that has more return than the risk in order to remain on the positive side in trading for long terms.

That all makes sense, of course … (thanks for satisfying my curiosity!) :cool:

Makes sense … I quite often do that, myself: I’ll have a stop-loss (entered automatically, with the trade) but if the price turns against me, I’ll often close it manually before the SL is actually hit. It saves a few dollars but makes working out what your [I]actual[/I] risk was slightly more difficult …