Stops - A question from a newbe!

I'm interested in how all you guys decide on profit stop levels ... there seems to be a fair amount of stop running so how do you decide where to place your stops ... lets say you sold GBP/USD at 1.8330 and the current price is 1.8285 ... a nice little profit ... now an obvious resistance level will be 1.8300 but would you put at a stop at 1.8300 1.8305, 1.8310 ... where ? In a case like this it may have popped back to say 1.8301 and failed to recover so one might think ok i'll put my stop at 1.8302 but then everybody knows stops are going to about there so they will run them - take them out and take the market lower again .... so what in general is the best spread from an obvious resistance level - 00 or 50 or previous high low ...

Any advice appreciated !

Thanks

Paul

Coming from shares and derivatives trading, I've had no problem getting market direction right most of the time.

I'd have to admit that it's stop placement that I have had to put the most energy into since taking up currency trading. :

I'm no expert but here are my lessons so far:

 

1. Allowing for the spread.

1. Placing SL on the other side of round numbers and 5's (plus spread!!)

1. I trade through Gain's platform , so I double check resistance points aren't a few pips different to my MetaTrade feed.

1. Avoiding the obvious break points and leaving a larger buffer than I would have trading other instruments.

1. On mid to long term positions, going for the largest most conservative resistance/support point my risk management will allow.

1. Taking a proportion of my profits at around 30-pips (seems optimal for my method) and letting the rest run, and setting that to break-even stop loss once 50 or more pips away.

1. Sometimes setting stop loss to very large point (more to protect account. 80 pips etc) and keeping an eye out manually for indications of technical failure. ...When I'm keen to watch that closely!

1. ...AND work in progress. Still fine tuning!

After doing all that, I now don't have as many frustrating stop hits that kill my positions before going my original direction.

I'm keen to hear others techniques too.