Best way to keep losers small?

That's me, getting skittish and walking away with 2.5% instead of 12%+
Now excuse me while I go destroy some furniture.

This was precisely my point, thank you.

Hard to make any sort of good reply as no one knows your style of trading.

But in general....with many years trading...both your choices are wrong.

Moving to breakeven is a newbie move to help with your psyche, temporarily, until you start to see many of your would-be successful trades take you out at b.e. and then continue in your intended direction.

Look at your first phrase: 'cut your losers'. This means being pro-active, and managing your risk. Entering a stop and leaving it is a real half-assed way to manage your risk. Your initial trade probably has wiggle room. Now...at what point do you reduce risk? (something you have to research). Reduction in your risk will confirm that your area of interest has some creedence, but is not out of the woodwork yet. If you move your stop to b/e for any reason other than trade invalidation, and you are wasting your time trading.

Hope this helps.

Make rules and stick to them, period.

An example from last night
GBPUSD
7:00 PM UK Time

initial risk reduced "as soon as possible" ... 2 tries

It is the human's nature - to break own rules. Humans set them, and the same humans break them. We are not machines.
If everything were so simple, the world would be a perfect place.

it all makes sense now

To avoid we need to avoid date timings and news timings