When do you stop | Forex Factory

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When do you stop

  • #1
  • First Post: Aug 27, 2009 6:34pm Aug 27, 2009 6:34pm
This is more relevant to the daytraders. In any given trading session, when do you decide to stop trading? I set my loss limit -5% and my daily gain +1%.

Just interested to know how other people set their limits. What's your daily loss/win limit? do you continue to trade until the end of your trading session?
  • #2
  • Aug 27, 2009 6:40pm Aug 27, 2009 6:40pm
some ideas i had were having time checkpoints ex. every 2 hours, if i'm up, then I stop, if not I continue until i do or hit end of trading session

or trade until i get some fraction of the higher timeframe ATR. ex. i trade on teh 1 minute, so I don't stop trading until i get 50% of pips of the hourly atr(10)
  • #3
  • Aug 27, 2009 10:01pm Aug 27, 2009 10:01pm
I usually set a time limit (when I was scalping "in direct") of no more than about 4-6 hours, which usually were enough to achieve my daily target of 1%. If met earlier, I stopped trading until next day; if not met, I stopped trading anyway after that time had elapsed.

Nowadays I am working mostly with pending orders so I set price alerts and will be checking the charts only when a particular order is triggered, re-set the corresponding alerts; if not at home, I'll be checking prices on my cell phone every 4 hours and connect if needed.

Contrarily to the first behaviour, the computer is now on all day for the alerts, but I am seldom in front of the charts unless I need to manage the trades.
  • #4
  • Edited 10:53pm Aug 27, 2009 10:41pm | Edited 10:53pm
Quoting hilmy83
This is more relevant to the daytraders. In any given trading session, when do you decide to stop trading? I set my loss limit -5% and my daily gain +1%.

Just interested to know how other people set their limits. What's your daily loss/win limit? do you continue to trade until the end of your trading session?
Hi hilmy,

I am in melbourne Aust.

I have two sessions I look at.

4pm to 8:30pm
10pm - 11pm.

In terms of gains I have no limits.

If I make two bad trades in a row I stop trading.

If I made 30+ pips in session one then I normally skip session two.
  • #5
  • Aug 27, 2009 10:44pm Aug 27, 2009 10:44pm
My intra day target is set on weekly parameters, 5% is job done for me,

cutting the task further down to 5 small targets each week for me increases the stress during slow markets and keeps me out when market conditions are good.

Sometimes I get my 5% on the first 2 days, and other times I take no trades right across the week until late on Thursday or in London and Ny on a Friday,

and of coarse no intra day trading for the rest of the week once the 5% is done,

g.
I believe . . .
  • #6
  • Aug 28, 2009 4:43am Aug 28, 2009 4:43am
I set a % profit limit, when i reach 2-3% i put stops at be and let positions run, when they hit 4-5% i close all and stop trading, if they are closed at be i continue trading until reached 3-4%
  • #7
  • Aug 28, 2009 4:53am Aug 28, 2009 4:53am
Around 430 pm eastern on Friday. LOL!

I don't set upper limits because I feel if the markets want to play nice, I can play all day.
  • #8
  • Aug 28, 2009 5:13am Aug 28, 2009 5:13am
Quoting doblece
I usually set a time limit (when I was scalping "in direct") of no more than about 4-6 hours, which usually were enough to achieve my daily target of 1%. If met earlier, I stopped trading until next day; if not met, I stopped trading anyway after that time had elapsed.

Nowadays I am working mostly with pending orders so I set price alerts and will be checking the charts only when a particular order is triggered, re-set the corresponding alerts; if not at home, I'll be checking prices on my cell phone every 4 hours and connect if needed.

Contrarily...
so no loss limit? what if you're in a hole too deep and you still have time to trade wuold you still trade?
  • #9
  • Aug 28, 2009 5:15am Aug 28, 2009 5:15am
Quoting >Apocalypto<
Hi hilmy,

I am in melbourne Aust.

I have two sessions I look at.

4pm to 8:30pm
10pm - 11pm.

In terms of gains I have no limits.

If I make two bad trades in a row I stop trading.

If I made 30+ pips in session one then I normally skip session two.
your method fits the mantra let the winners run. i like it, maybe will look into this too
  • #10
  • Aug 28, 2009 5:15am Aug 28, 2009 5:15am
Quoting magnumfreak
Around 430 pm eastern on Friday. LOL!

I don't set upper limits because I feel if the markets want to play nice, I can play all day.
I agree with MF on this one.

Just because I have a 2% drawdown on any given day it doesn't mean anything to me, the only bad trades are trades where I don't follow my plan.

I have no upper or lower limit for the week, some weeks are outlier weeks for me, on those weeks I have to press home my advantage to make up for the inevitable poorer ones.

I don't trade the Asian session though.

Alerts are a lifesaver for chart watching, also playing games passes the time too
  • #11
  • Aug 28, 2009 5:18am Aug 28, 2009 5:18am
Quoting Jigsaw
I agree with MF on this one.

Just because I have a 2% drawdown on any given day it doesn't mean anything to me, the only bad trades are trades where I don't follow my plan.

I have no upper or lower limit for the week, some weeks are outlier weeks for me, on those weeks I have to press home my advantage to make up for the inevitable poorer ones.

I don't trade the Asian session though.

Alerts are a lifesaver for chart watching, also playing games passes the time too
i find it hard to keep going when i have very good returns early on the day or week. Because i don't want to give it back.
  • #12
  • Aug 28, 2009 5:22am Aug 28, 2009 5:22am
Quoting magnumfreak
Around 430 pm eastern on Friday. LOL!

I don't set upper limits because I feel if the markets want to play nice, I can play all day.
and if the market's nasty? you still keep playing?
  • #13
  • Aug 28, 2009 5:26am Aug 28, 2009 5:26am
another thing to consider is situation when you're up but you havent' met your goal yet, so you continue on trading. But in the midst of continuing you end up giving up all of it and some so now you're in a hole. I mean that's very hard to deal with at least for me. Then you wondering you shold've quit while you'er ahead. I guess it's more a mental thing than anything.
  • #14
  • Aug 28, 2009 5:44am Aug 28, 2009 5:44am
Quoting hilmy83
i find it hard to keep going when i have very good returns early on the day or week. Because i don't want to give it back.
I know what you mean, I used to be of the opinion "I made some nice profits this month, so I am just going to trade less / only take the strongest signals so as not to give the money back"

But I found over the long term I was constricting myself, I would effectively stop trading / rarely trade on weeks where I had profits on board by Tuesday or Wednesday on any given week. But looking back on my trading and the setups that occured I saw that my profits were being lessened on these weeks.

In Juxtaposition to this then on my losing weeks I had no limits so my losses would be the same and my profits were restricted.

For me it was a psychological thing, I was afraid of giving my profits back when there was no need to be scared (Easier said than done though) Just pressing on has increased my %R at the end of the month.

Personally the advantages of pressing on far outweigh its disadvantages. I think it also depends on what type of system/method a person is implementing. Like. . I don't know I can't think of a great example .. .

Say if somebody was running a 1:4 RR Semi Martingale sequence with some type of entry which provides an edge (not a random entry), which has a starting risk of say .1% and a reward of .4% which which stopped after 10 losses to restrict the drawdown to 3% or so. Hmmm, thats a bad example but the best I have at the moment, THAT guy should probably stop once he gets his profit, as his sequence will hopefully be over during the most volatile times.


Take my trading yesterday for example, price action was horrible all morning and I was staring at just over -2%, around midday. It was am extremely frustrating day and I was having one of those "pull yourself together" moments in front of the charts, so I just kept following my plan and pressed on, then the EURUSD exploded upward and I caught it coming back down before Asia session as well. I ended the day at around +1.5%. Not to say it couldn't have went the other way but I am of the opinion of trading the market for what it is for the hours you are going to trade it.

Overall though I find it hard to justify the "I have made a certain amount I must stop now" I am prepared to take what the market will give me, whether thats good or bad.

Apologies for the long post,
Jig

EDIT

@Doblece - Thankyou for your links regarding ICCE in the Female traders thread, Im going to watch that video a few more times to let it settle in.
  • #15
  • Aug 28, 2009 5:49am Aug 28, 2009 5:49am
Quoting hilmy83
so no loss limit? what if you're in a hole too deep and you still have time to trade wuold you still trade?
Losses were included in the "if not met" conditions

However now, with the pending orders and alerts, I guess it's more of a continuous trading (as a price alert could be triggered at any time of the day) BUT with very little screen time.

Losses are part of the scene but I wouldn't change the parameters of my strategy to try to recover them in a different way.
  • #16
  • Aug 28, 2009 6:13am Aug 28, 2009 6:13am
Quoting hilmy83
i find it hard to keep going when i have very good returns early on the day or week. Because i don't want to give it back.
I run into this as well.

Before I started my new job I was trading semi full time.

I remember one European session open where I made 20 pips on two trades and when the next ent came a long I really hesitated.

the emotion or fear so powerfull.

not sure on a way to beat that apart from not listening to that little voice mind and following your plan.

?????????????? anyone have a answer for that?
  • #17
  • Aug 28, 2009 6:17am Aug 28, 2009 6:17am
Quoting hilmy83
your method fits the mantra let the winners run. i like it, maybe will look into this too
Main reason I try to think like this is mainly on the fact of you just don't know if the market will throw up signals the following day.

as a day to day session scalper capping my gains could stitch me up tomorrow if A. no signals or B. i take two losses.

  • #18
  • Aug 28, 2009 10:34am Aug 28, 2009 10:34am
Here's a related question. If any of you are trading OPM, will you book the rest of the month once you hit a certain percentage won? Or if you're at a certain point, cut the risk per trade then book if you lose down to x percentage? Iow, you're up 14%, lose down to 10% then call it a month.
  • #19
  • Aug 31, 2009 2:16pm Aug 31, 2009 2:16pm
I tend to have much smaller margins.
I like dealing GBP/USD pair so I set my stop loss about 30 pips and then try to get about 50.
But I mainly trade on announcements, thus such small margins work for me. As if I deal just before a major announcement I want to exit asap if I'm wrong but want to catch as much as possible if I'm right.
  • #20
  • Edited 3:04am Sep 1, 2009 1:04am | Edited 3:04am
Excellent question. One method i am looking at adopting, is to restrict losses to a max - daily, weekly and monthly. Let your winners/profits ride, but put a trailing stop to it.

Max Loss Target Profit (2 X max loss)
Daily - 3% + 6%
Weekly - 8% + 16%
Monthly - 16% + 32

Assumption: Risk max 1% per trade, min Reward-risk ratio should be 2:1. Max 3 trades per day.

For daily, if there are 2 consecutive max losses, reduce positions to half. Stop trading if daily max loss is hit.

For weekly, if there are 2 consecutive daily max losses, reduce positions to half. Stop trading if weekly max loss is hit, and re-evaluate trades for rest of week.

For monthly, if there are 2 consecutive weekly max losses, reduce positions to half. Stop trading if monthly max loss is hit, and re-evaluate trades for rest of month.

Most importantly, if daily/weekly/monthly target profit is hit, consider putting a "stoploss" of 50%. E.g. if account is + 16% for the week, stop trading if it comes down to + 8%.

This is for discretionary trading, it may not apply to mechanical methods, where every trade should be taken.

Appreciate comments from the seasoned traders. Cheers.
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