Set it and forget it or watch and manage?

March 2nd, 2011, 02:57 PM

The question in the title pertains to trade management. I'd like to know what people do as well as what they think about each approach.

Lets just assume you enter a trade and you place a stop and one or more targets. Depending on your plan and whether or not you have a time constraint for a trade to work or not may affect this, but assuming you don't the question is:

Do you set it and forget it? Enter the trade with stop and target(s) and let it play out? or

Watch and manage the trade? In other words, do you move targets up/down. Move stops etc.

I'm interested in any and all feedback.

David

March 2nd, 2011, 04:08 PM

I never do set it and forget it. It's dangerous. After each entry, I continuously monitor my trades, no matter how good is the entry. If I feel that my trade is losing I try to exit with minimum loss. It has some pros and cons. You might exit a winning trade too soon. But I think overall it's always safe to monitor your trade. And exit if necessary without waiting for your stop to get hit.

March 3rd, 2011, 07:49 PM

I always have thresholds that should see price closing beyond or I close out the trade . For example , after I enter long I need to see price close above a certain resistance level and if it does I will move the stop higher to lock in profits and if not Ill close it out . I establish where these levels are before getting in and if the profit potential is great enough I look to get in .

So most times I can exit with a small profit or a break even instead of a full stopout . If I waited to be proven wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt I then need a winner to get back to square one . If I ultimately was right but exited early I could potentially re enter .

March 5th, 2011, 03:36 AM

Some of my most profitable trades had been "enter and walk away for a while" trade.

Meaning that after I took the trade I don't look at it for the next 15 mins.

Why? Because I had a habit of taking too small a profit once its in green, only to see the price move 10x more in the direction I had taken after I close my position.

Set it and forget it or watch and manage?

Discussion in Psychology and Money Management

Set it and forget it or watch and manage?