Trading 1 contract: Trailing Stop or Profit Target

January 10th, 2020, 10:59 AM

tr8er

I mostly trade pullbacks in a trend (at least intraday trend), so 10-20 ticks works fine.

Thanks for reply tr8er,

Yes, trading pullbacks with limit orders helps control your risk and keep your stop about the same per trade. The only disadvantage in this , you miss some trades. I have thought about this as well to control risk.

tr8er

CL has nice moves, so it's better to trade less and let it run, best example are your 3 trades (posted above), let trade 1 run and you don't need trade 2 and 3

(but as already said, it is all so easy (after wards)

)

Yes, Yes, in that first trade, had I just place a bracket order with stop loss price, limit order to take profit at R:R = 1 or 2. I be done for the day.

I agree with the trade less part. I have a rule of no more than 2-3 trades per day.

January 10th, 2020, 11:01 AM

tr8er

How much will you risk?

For CL, I've also 2 strategies, it always depends at what time and level.

1: 20 tick PT and 10 tick SL, if it moves 5 ticks in my favour, SL jumps to -5 ticks and stays there
2: 30 tick PT and 20 tick SL, it it moves 10 ticks in my favour, SL jumps to -5 ticks and trails by 15 ticks

if it moves fast close to the PT (which can happen with CL), I delete the PT and trail it manually

Hello tr8er,

What are your thoughts on break even trades? I am testing it out to see how it works for me on rather I like it or not.

January 10th, 2020, 11:59 AM

IMHO, if the trade is at 1/2 of PT, the stop should be at least at b/e

January 10th, 2020, 12:06 PM

Depends on what produces better results via backtesting/forward testing.

January 10th, 2020, 12:58 PM

Massive l

Depends on what produces better results via backtesting/forward testing.

Hello Massive I,

Thank you for responding the thread.

Yes, I would agree this as well. One thing I learned is to have a clear plan on strategy goals and objectives before back testing.

January 10th, 2020, 12:59 PM

tr8er

IMHO, if the trade is at 1/2 of PT, the stop should be at least at b/e

Thanks for your response tr8er,

I will add this scenario of breakeven in the backtesting and forward testing as well.

January 10th, 2020, 01:07 PM

goodoboy

Hello Massive I,

Thank you for responding the thread.

Yes, I would agree this as well. One thing I learned is to have a clear plan on strategy goals and objectives before back testing.

I've never had a clear plan backtesting because that's all in your head. It would try lots of different strategies to see the results. Most of the time what I thought would work clearly in my head and what worked through backtesting was very surprising.

January 10th, 2020, 01:25 PM

Massive l

I've never had a clear plan backtesting because that's all in your head. It would try lots of different strategies to see the results. Most of the time what I thought would work clearly in my head and what worked through backtesting was very surprising.

Thanks Massive I,

What I mean is for clear planning before start backtesting is recording the right data per trade. For example, I never recorded the following per trade MAE, MFE, max RR, breakeven, etc. Just things that I now think of a question that I could have included in my manually back test spreadsheet to track trades.

February 7th, 2020, 09:51 AM

tr8er

I mostly trade pullbacks in a trend (at least intraday trend), so 10-20 ticks works fine.

Hello tr8er,

Since our last conversation, I have been testing R:R = 1, 1.25, and 1.5. This helps to keep things simple too.

Question for your, you mentioned you trade pullbacks.

What is your criteria or rules for canceling the order if your limit order is not filled and price takes off in the direction your tried to enter?

Thanks

February 7th, 2020, 10:02 AM

goodoboy

Hello tr8er,

Since our last conversation, I have been testing R:R = 1, 1.25, and 1.5. This helps to keep things simple too.

Question for your, you mentioned you trade pullbacks.

What is your criteria or rules for canceling the order if your limit order is not filled and price takes off in the direction your tried to enter?

Thanks

Hi, for Crude I cancel the order after 10 ticks or if a new candle occurs (what happens first), otherwise I wait.

Trading 1 contract: Trailing Stop or Profit Target

Discussion in Psychology and Money Management

Trading 1 contract: Trailing Stop or Profit Target