I always have fixed spreads, I get hit with about a 30 second order entry delay in volatile times so if I'm already in a trade I'll only get kicked out if the news reaches my order and I'll be subjected to 30 seconds of slippage. One time I had a pending order triggered during news and the candle went way beyond my entry price (in favor of trend) within the 30 seconds, then my order was filled and I was in a panic of a snap back, but it kept going and then started to hover still way in profit, so I got lucky.
Even after it settled down it still kept going in a profit with support/resistance way beyond entry price. I just take the setups without worrying about news because if I get hit with a bad one it'll be balanced by those good hits just like with overall trading systems. And in my experience even placing orders around NFP news (the worst of the worst) I have found that support/resistance usually holds, sometimes you'll see the volatile activity on the chart but it won't touch your orders (assuming fixed spread) unless it was meant to go that way in a proper trend. I've never really been faked out by news glitches on the chart in other words. If Iv'e been stopped it's because my trade probably wouldn't have ever worked in the first place and the news accelerated the travel to my stop.
The issue on how to pad stops with pips is what lead me to the idea I started doing to use MT4 as an overall setup guide and then observe my broker's chart to see the exact price at those levels. So I may find a swing and want to trade it, then I check my broker and see their swing low is 3 pips lower than MT4 demo so I use that price plus spread plus up to 3 pips extra I think was the magic number I developed.
So with cable having 5 spread overall for me, I notice that my broker chart price is usually centered with 2 of those 5 pips to the down side and 3 to the up side. If the chart says 2.0005, then the broker price is usually 2.0003 sell, 2.0008 buy. If I'm looking for a value to give to a sell stop it will be in that case, 2.0003 minus 3 padding and since it's an even 2.0000 I may make it 1.9997 or 1.9999. I don't often pay attention to round numbers in methods like this, I think of it as superstitious because when it wants to cross the boundaries, it does but there's something about a fat 2.0000 that looks wrong.
I may add even more pips by observing how the broker price compares to its chart at the time...sometimes when moving fast, the quoted prices will heavily favor one side, a chart may show 2.0005 and the sell is 2.0005 with a buy of 2.0010 if the action is moving down rapidly. I think it's a bit of lag mostly. So I'll just work with what I see at the time and this may skew test results a little but overall with observed spread plus 3 I think it's a good estimate for success or failure if it blows through.
When working with longer term trading methods I just use a fixed number like 10 or 15 outside the chart - it's sloppy because the long and short sides of the quoted price will mean one side gets in later than the other but the aim is to be able to blindly cover cost of spread and padding without the effort of fine tuning since it's long term.
Even after it settled down it still kept going in a profit with support/resistance way beyond entry price. I just take the setups without worrying about news because if I get hit with a bad one it'll be balanced by those good hits just like with overall trading systems. And in my experience even placing orders around NFP news (the worst of the worst) I have found that support/resistance usually holds, sometimes you'll see the volatile activity on the chart but it won't touch your orders (assuming fixed spread) unless it was meant to go that way in a proper trend. I've never really been faked out by news glitches on the chart in other words. If Iv'e been stopped it's because my trade probably wouldn't have ever worked in the first place and the news accelerated the travel to my stop.
The issue on how to pad stops with pips is what lead me to the idea I started doing to use MT4 as an overall setup guide and then observe my broker's chart to see the exact price at those levels. So I may find a swing and want to trade it, then I check my broker and see their swing low is 3 pips lower than MT4 demo so I use that price plus spread plus up to 3 pips extra I think was the magic number I developed.
So with cable having 5 spread overall for me, I notice that my broker chart price is usually centered with 2 of those 5 pips to the down side and 3 to the up side. If the chart says 2.0005, then the broker price is usually 2.0003 sell, 2.0008 buy. If I'm looking for a value to give to a sell stop it will be in that case, 2.0003 minus 3 padding and since it's an even 2.0000 I may make it 1.9997 or 1.9999. I don't often pay attention to round numbers in methods like this, I think of it as superstitious because when it wants to cross the boundaries, it does but there's something about a fat 2.0000 that looks wrong.
I may add even more pips by observing how the broker price compares to its chart at the time...sometimes when moving fast, the quoted prices will heavily favor one side, a chart may show 2.0005 and the sell is 2.0005 with a buy of 2.0010 if the action is moving down rapidly. I think it's a bit of lag mostly. So I'll just work with what I see at the time and this may skew test results a little but overall with observed spread plus 3 I think it's a good estimate for success or failure if it blows through.
When working with longer term trading methods I just use a fixed number like 10 or 15 outside the chart - it's sloppy because the long and short sides of the quoted price will mean one side gets in later than the other but the aim is to be able to blindly cover cost of spread and padding without the effort of fine tuning since it's long term.
"Support and Resistance either holds or it doesn't."
-Anonymous hillbilly