Question on placement of stops

http://img804.imageshack.us/img804/3919/45366565.gif

Guys and gals,

Look at the current bar, I will think short here if this bar closes well below the previous lows, opens or closes. Normally I will wait for a retrace and sell around the middle of this current bar. Then I stick a stop at the top of the current bar plus a few pips for spread.

Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't, but that is not what matters. I'm always unsure if this is the most logical place for placing my stop. My trading style is scalping and I trade the momentum, so 'A' seems like the best place keeping in mind small losses ... it may sound that I've answered my own question.

But I've also read to use major/minor levels of SR or round numbers etc... as SL levels

Anyway I just want to ask if any pros who trade the same share their method or experiences with me?

Thanks for listening

BTW, the current bar didn't work out lol

I'm not a pro, just on demo and've lost alot. Also, I've not a set method yet, and have almost no experience in placing stops.
However, I've read a lot of, and, over lots of years, have placed a few, stops, enough so I feel confident in using them when the time arrives.

This one seems easy.
It's an ascending triangle, so the trade is long. Bar C) looks awfully straight, enough to support this premise. One may place a stop as if the formation were to break, that is, drop short. One would put the stop a few -- ten or so, perhaps -- pips below the bottom of the formation. D)

Then again, maybe it's not.
Your labels suggest you're doing a countertrade on the short side, which could work only it'd be fewer pips. And, you recognize an inner theme to the chart that makes the ascending triangle at least partially fail. It does seem that the peaks roll down from C) to the middle of the chart, and then make a half-hearted jump again at B) before dropping a bit with a strong lower portion of the bar at A). Bar A)'s energy seems to be about to touch the lower right line of the triangle, with a downward energy and break of that line hinted at.
In this case, C) works.

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, it was a counter trend trade, I missed the ascending triangle lol but I was looking at the triple top play plus the high from yesterday.

Since I finished reading the Complete Turtle Trader book, I've been using a 2ATR stop on all my trades and so far it's been working for me. Ofcourse we're on a pretty good uptrend on most currencies against USD so it's hard to tell how long my simple SL strategy will work.