DislikedBy shifting your SL to BE at this point is serverly limiting the room that the trade has to run, and essentially mature. If you are locking in BE just because you dont want to loose then you need to do a few things and the first thing is to look at your plan.
IF you dont have a PLAN then you need to create one and incorporate the risk that you are prepared to place and loose, and understand that you need to accept the loose part. There are no easy ways to trade but by letting your emotions lock in BEs, especially when this system is based on...Ignored
There are two basic adages that I beleive in:
1. Plan your Trade and Trade your Plan.
2. Cut your loses and let the Profits run.
If you jump in at the middle of a planned trade and make changes, that is just letting emotion (principally fear and greed) get in the mix. Not good. Trade your plan to the end. Evaluate and make adjustments after the Trade to modify your next Trade but be disciplined.
I love Ace's concept as it gives me a very good framework to start the week. I also don't have to be in front of the computer all the time. But based on my second adage, I will not do the following:
Let's assume the box plus buffer etc is 150 pips. Assume my goal is TP3 or 450 pips profit. Assume a Long is entered and runs to 425 pips and turns south by Wednesday. I simply cannot beleive anyone would walk from lets say at least 300 pips profit (using a 125 pip Trailing SL) and let the trade reverse all the way down past the box and get stopped out for 150 pips LOSS. In other words, you let it run from a 425 profit to a 150 pip loss. That's 575 pips. That to me is simply not logical.
At least move the SL to BE by TP1. I like the 125 pip trailing SL (this number to be fine tuned with back testing). I can always re-enter if the Long trade again moves up strongly and take advantage of maybe another couple of hundred or more pips but I have already banked 300 pips. There is very little downside on this method and a huge upside potential as I really don't set it at TP3. I will let it run until Friday or it just runs of steam, reverses and my trailing SL bumps me out. This maximizes my plan or Number 2 adage of cutting the loses and maximizing the profits. Yes I may miss couple of re-entries because I am asleep or whatever but I cannot be at the computer 24/7 but I am very comfortable with this plan and I can sleep at night.
Also, we are heading into the worst month for trading so I would be very careful of more weeks like last week. I hit BE which is fine with me. If I had re-entered on Thursday, I would have made money but that's OK. Trade the Plan.
Dave R.