I'm beginning to think that...

If you traded the trend and placed a 200 pip stop with a goal of making a 20 pip profit, the chances are near perfect that you come out on top.

I know I'm new to forex but this is how I feel: The chances are never near perfect. Instead of making 20 pip profit, you'll end up losing 200 pip. It's gonna take you another 10 turns of 20 pip profit to recover that 200 pip. And guess what, chances are that at least one from those 10 turns you'll again loose 200 pip.

Hello Schlaps !!!

Please try the Nanningbob Threads, especialy the 60/90 !
It looks like Rollercoasting, but if you handle it right, don´t overtrade and have enough Margin to survive a 500 pips DD in 5 os 6 pairs (I´m talking about 25 - 50 US$ per each for starting a micro Account), it will be one of the best decisions you ever made !!!

Read it, think about and make your own decision...

Good Luck and all the best...

I sometimes have a 200 pip drawdown that is prop to my account, the pips dosent matter its how much the pip is worth in relation to your account.

Now that being said, try this: use the trend " lower lows and higher highs" with a trend line , moving average, whatever, and wait until you are at the extreme of the trend and then trade a portion of a position, and hope you are wrong then wait for about half of the last swing high or low (whichever applies) and enter again, if you are right then let them run together or take profit on the second entry and use its profits to give the first entry some breathing room, if you are wrong enter again right around the last swing high or low, hopefully it will be some sort of supp or res. if you are right then take profit @ the second entry or first. the whole idea is to reduce exposer as you go giving that first entry a chance to work out, if you are wrong on the third entry have a stop above the last swing high or low (whichever applies), usually about half the daily average range. try to keep you max risk under 5%. there is no sense in trying to day trade using TA. In the long run you will be much less stressed. In some other threads I have been beaten on and accused of tooting my own horn; however I have been trading this way for quite some time, now I use alot of info to make my entry (all this will be in time) but the bottom line all that may add a couple of % a yr to my account keeping me in longer when i am right and getting out quicker when i am wrong. There is a whole world of micro and macro economics that if you study will help you and will become a MUST as time goes on however I would like people to stay in the game long enough to have the experience and exposer to grasp what they are learning.
I think it is so sad to see people making this harder than it has to be, dont get me wrong this is no magic formula, but as YOU stay in the market (not nec. always in a trade)with your learning cap on youll find your way.

Maybe you will will 5 times but on 6th you burn twice more.

recipe for desaster

No harm in asking the question, but the sort of thinking and analysis you now apply to that question (not to mention the answer you come up with) might just be a good indicator of whether you are 'right' for the business of trading.

when u lose , u lose all the times u won which mean 10 times .. so for every 10 wins 1 lost makes it even .. think about it pal dont try to cut corners just learn how to trade.

and if u lose 2 times , u need to win 40 times to get ur money backk.. LOL

I've noticed something similar in testing EA's over long periods of time.

Each pair is different though. 20 and 200 might be 150 and 1000 on a different pair.

The losses I have incurred would not have been losses if I had a 200 pip SL instead of a 50-100 pip SL which I usually use. Try doing this in a demo acct. and you will see what I mean. Why demo? Because there is no psychological factor when you use a demo.
Thanks Toledo. I skimmed through Nanningbob and it sounds interesting. I'm not much into EA's and I'm not really computer literate so figuring out his system and then applying that would just drive me crazy.
Mr.T, it sounds like you are just doubling down if it doesn't go your direction. I don't understand why you would hope that it doesn't go your way until your second trade unless you are playing the double down with a just a portion of your initial entry "in case" it doesn't go the direction you want it to. If that's the case then I don't think it would work as well for me because I want to trade with the 200 pip SL at the S/R levels. (Unless I would wait for the retracement).