How do you know which losses to take early on? One of my issues is that I believe I should trade my plan. So taking a loss early means that I’m not trading my plan.
I take a loss when my trade becomes invalid and this keeps me out of big losses
2 Likes
Noted. I hope I gain the same amount of discipline in cutting losses.
1 Like
-
Stopped Day Trading/trading the Smaller Charts
-
Trading only the Daily and 4 Hour.
-
Targeting Pips of 100 to 200 Pips over 5 to 7 Days.
-
Also targeting 50 to 70 Pips within 24 Hours.
-
Using Candlestick Patterns, Trendlines and Consolidation Patterns …No Indicators.
-
No Economic News/Analysis ( I am an Economist with Central Bank experience…trust me…its not needed for Forex trading at the individual level)
-
Stopped watching my trades
Duane
DRFXTRADING
16 Likes
Also knowing where to place my Stop Loss so I dont get Stopped out too early.
Its a combination of placing it at an area thats not too far away to require a large Stop, but far enough to stay away from temporary pullbacks.
One of the most annoying thingz is to accurately predict market direction, but get stopped out eary by a temporary reversal because I placed my Stop too near my entry. I would then watch as the market resumed the trend to hit the area that would have given me the trading gain as I had planned - instead of the loss. Sometimes I would get lucky and re-enter the market to get something out of it to compensate for the early loss, but not always.
Always better to place it at the right area to begin with instead of being cheap by wanting to use a tight Stop.
This recent trade on the EUR JPY shows an example of where we can place our Stop Loss to protect against pullbacks when trading Bear Crown Setups.
Where would you have placed your Stop Loss? At the Downtrendline as I did here, higher or lower?
Placing it anywhere near or lower than 120.75 would have led to anxious moments or a trading loss.
See my video analysis below.
Duane
DRFXTRADING
4 Likes
to name just a few things that lifted my trading :
-pick a method / system that suits your daily routine
-stick to it dont jump from 1 system/method to another
-backtest the method …forward test the method …over and over again until you learn to see every nuance of it and until you trust your method
-make sure to have a good RR on your trades and learn how “set and forget” and “active trade management” impacts your trading ( keep journaling every trade to find your weak spots and find your edge)
-dont force trades …if there is no set up you can see immediately dont trade …better miss a trade than lose one…next train is coming for sure …you are on a marathon not a sprint
-dont compare yourself to other traders …you are unique
-love what you do …love the process …money will follow after that …so dont try to run before you can walk
ask a professional football player what makes him better i’m sure the answer is training 
think that are my favorites
10 Likes
I like that. Some people think you need certain qualities to succeed. Even if you posses those qualities, without the right trading strategies, you will fail. So everyone should get a working strategies and stop with all the have this and have that.
3 Likes
That was the hardest lesson for me to learn to take losses when trade is invalid. But trust me once I started doing that with discipline, I stopped blowing accounts and started to become profitable
2 Likes
This was my issue in a big way. Didn’t nip it in the bud and had to cut the bloom off. I would let losses blossom and Bloom.
In the words of cheap trick “No more, no more!”
KC
1 Like
You should go to the trade history tab, if you’re trading mt4, and click on you losing trades and drag them onto the chart.
See which ones went against you immediately especially if you are fading the top or bottom.
Then see which ones start out profitable then turn against you against you and how they recovered, if at all.
This is an incredibly valuable exercise I would recommend anybody to do this who is still struggling with profitability. It really is an eye-opener. It will layout all your losses and will give you an excellent idea of when you should have gotten immediately, after a small loss and as - I believe @tommor does - if it’s 50% of your SL it’s highly unlikely to turn around soon and close it down.
Then you should do the same for winners. And try to actually assess if you’re winning and losing entries were based on the same criteria or was there some kind of emotional trigger.
KC
5 Likes
Same for me! We have to accept that we can’t win them all. If it went to the wrong side, just cut it. Don’t wait until you lose 3 times more than expected. Same for profits, I take profits as soon as possible even if it’s just 1, 5 or 7 pips. A win is a win.
3 Likes
Pick a pair or 2 and study it’s movement. Know when it eats, sleeps and play…
6 Likes
Yep, no one went broke by taking a profit
2 Likes
Lol ‘no one went broke taking a profit’. You’re obviously new to trading and are regurgitating from the internet. As you gain experience you’ll realise this is wrong… both what you said and regurgitating from the internet.
3 Likes
Studied Studied Studied
3 Likes
thetradinggod: Also learn to stop checking my trades and just let them play out. The market is going to do what it does wether I am watching or not.
Me; The most valuable advice indeed. All the times I set my target according to price action, market does go there but because I keep on refreshing every now and then, I end up closing trades earlier with little bit of profit or loss than realising a big profit. I need to develop more patience. I often talk to my friend about trading and tell him where the price is heading. I have an accuracy of 80%-90% and i am not lying about it. I could have been a profitable trader but I loose as i close my trades earlier, mostly in loss, only the price to come back towards the direction of my trade.
The other mistake i make is that i trade on small account and open large positions, thus, leaving me with little back up and in return i am forced to close trades after receiving margin calls.
This is the first time i am writing and by doing so i am letting my ego go and acknowledging that something is wrong which needs to be worked on. Hence, i have taken the very first step which i sbould have done it a while ago, but its never too late to do the right thing.
Sorry about the essay but hopefully it will help me in the future as i am letting my self go for the first time. Now i realise how important is it to participate in the posts like this as it motivates you to keep commenting/ coming back to share your feelings.
Q: How will it help us improve?
A: The answer lies in the fact that you can only come back to post if u have balance left in your account which motivates you to not to blow up ur account on a single trade and be more patient. As they say “live to trade another day”.
Patience Patience Patience
DO NOT BE GREEDY
~Sit back and analyse once you have hit your targets before jumping in to ride on the next wave.
I will appreciate you guys feedback, if any, on any part of this as it will motivate me to participate more often and hopefully it will help others.
Keep positive and keep posting.
Sony
3 Likes
I believe you. Many of the markets best “analysts” can’t trade profitable despite being correct about the market direction almost all the time.
Meanwhile patient traders who are wrong 50 even 70% of the time can be profitable.
Definitely scale down your positions size so that you are able to place your stoploss away from the noise.
2 Likes
I understand what you’re saying but what I mean is what was it that changed things for you for the better?
Gain experience, try to deal with more experience traders and for sure lose money and learn on new mistakes
I think sticking unwaveringly to my trading plan helped me to enter the territory of profit. When I traded without trading plan I was getting many unexpected losing and profitable trades (big profits, big losses) what was difficult to manage psychologically