Ideal SL and TP for Swing Traders? | Forex Factory

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Ideal SL and TP for Swing Traders?

  • #1
  • First Post: Aug 10, 2017 1:10am Aug 10, 2017 1:10am
Hi all,

i am new to trading and have been actively trading my demo account for a month now.

I come across something i guess most newbie does and that is placing SL and TP.

What is your average pips do you place your SL and TP?

i am currently setting my SL at 40 and TP at 80 (1:2 ratio)
  • #2
  • Aug 10, 2017 1:46am Aug 10, 2017 1:46am
Hi,

Even i am also a newbie. I place S/L 30 and take profit - 10 PiP- ini 0.01 lot. At times i manually close.
  • #3
  • Aug 10, 2017 4:24am Aug 10, 2017 4:24am
Quoting jegansince90
Hi, Even i am also a newbie. I place S/L 30 and take profit - 10 PiP- ini 0.01 lot. At times i manually close.
Yes, I see myself manually exiting the trade way before my target is reach.

i think as a newbie, once you see some profits, you want to close out in case it reverse and you lose your profits.

It's something I am trying to control too....Most often than not, I exit way too early
  • #4
  • Aug 10, 2017 7:19am Aug 10, 2017 7:19am
Quoting fated82
What is your average pips do you place your SL and TP?

Average "pips"?!

There's no point in defining targets and SL's as an average number of pips.

That's barely better than random.

At least pretend to relate it to the volatility?

One pip on some pairs can be equivalent to five or more pips on others.

Depending on the volatility, as everything does.

Seriously, even just measuring it in units of ATR (at least that's volatility-related, even if it's only a crude approximation) is a whole lot better and more reasonable than trying to measure it in "numbers of pips"!
  • #5
  • Aug 10, 2017 7:53pm Aug 10, 2017 7:53pm
Quoting KarlKraus
{quote} Average "pips"?! There's no point in defining targets and SL's as an average number of pips. That's barely better than random. At least pretend to relate it to the volatility? One pip on some pairs can be equivalent to five or more pips on others. Depending on the volatility, as everything does. Seriously, even just measuring it in units of ATR (at least that's volatility-related, even if it's only a crude approximation) is a whole lot better and more reasonable than trying to measure it in "numbers of pips"!
This thread seems like it is likely going to be moved to the rookie talk section. Anyway, well put. I too do not recommend applying an arbitrary # fixed pips for anything. Every trade will be different and your stops should based on volatility or price action. Not pips.
  • #6
  • Aug 10, 2017 11:19pm Aug 10, 2017 11:19pm
The "Ideal SL and TP for Swing Traders" its based on the signal at the moment you enter, plain and simple; you dont know where its the swing high/low or whatever place you use to put the Stop Loss, by nature its different every time


UNLESS you are using price based candles THEN you can use a fixed Stop Loss in pips, otherwise its not a good idea
  • #7
  • Aug 19, 2017 8:43am Aug 19, 2017 8:43am
One secrecy to be successful in fx trading is "your maximum stop loss must be smaller than your average of target (profit) for a long run or system trading".

So, you have to assess what is the average profit of your trading system (method, or strategy, etc), or designed average of profit, eg. average 50 pips win per 100 trades, then, your stop loss should be fixed at 40 or 45 pips. This will guarantee a positive gear trading system.

Then, you have to assess 5 day ATR on daily base (ATR(5, D1) or volatility range to see 40 pips stop gap is enough beyond ATR reach with confidence in Z score above 99% (z score = 2.576) or BB(xxx, 2.576).
  • #8
  • Aug 19, 2017 2:00pm Aug 19, 2017 2:00pm
Quoting Jack168
One secrecy to be successful in fx trading is "your maximum stop loss must be smaller than your average of target (profit) for a long run or system trading". So, you have to assess what is the average profit of your trading system (method, or strategy, etc), or designed average of profit, eg. average 50 pips win per 100 trades, then, your stop loss should be fixed at 40 or 45 pips. This will guarantee a positive gear trading system. Then, you have to assess 5 day ATR on daily base (ATR(5, D1) or volatility range to see 40 pips stop gap is enough...
My weekend science fiction?
Can it be really this difficult?
Trading should be simple, or not?
ATR, Z-score, BB?... are you a winning trader? Do u calculate your SLs this way? Is it working for you? Can you show some examples ( of the success, live results)?

What if the 100 trades/your trading system assessment finds an average profit, does it need having a different SL, whatever size, or nothing at all? After all your assessment found profit...
What if you realise that when your 100 trade sample is winner, maybe all you need to do is continue the same way?
there is always, always another trade!!
  • #9
  • Edited 2:42pm Aug 19, 2017 2:27pm | Edited 2:42pm
The SL should be usually a few pips away from last closed candlestick's high/low. If you want a fixed number, it depends on timeframe and pair. some pairs moves a lot, some moves less. For example if you trade gold, sometimes it moves more than 100 pips per day, and if you trade with the trend on daily timeframe the SL should be about 100 pips.
If you trade with the trend, you don't know how far price will move, that's why you should not set any TP, you should only move the SL when price has moved reasonably. If price is about 100 pips near a support/resistance level, you can set a TP about 10 pips near that level.

That's only my opinion.

Just curious what timeframe do you trade? If you are a newbie, take my advice, start with daily timeframe.
  • #10
  • Aug 19, 2017 2:36pm Aug 19, 2017 2:36pm
depends on strategy
for normal trading set/forget use SL:TP
1:1, or 1:2

for adding into lossable position use one SL and TP level, depends on your risk, as example you take 3 trades every 10 pips for EU, set TP about 40 and SL about 40, move/decrease only TP with position adding, dont increase SL here!

each pair have different ADR, it means, dont use the same levels for all pairs! if you take in EURUSD M1 20pips SL, for GJ it can be about 60 .... dont trade against trend without SL! always have SL, small big, doesnt matter, have for each trade SL calculated on your risk

test yourself through some simulators and demo, dont go live with meaning you have big balls
  • #11
  • Last Post: Aug 28, 2017 2:25am Aug 28, 2017 2:25am
Whatever trading style you are following here; you have to set your SL & TP according to the market demand! I am surely using a fixed SL and TP is always risky, there is no logical reason behind it! I use neatest support and resistant levels for my SL and TP.
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