[Hlm]

To give specific suggestions about stops I would need to know more about you strategy and how consistent it is. Ten ticks on the YM is usually not considered a lot to risk. However, it depends on your setup.

But from my experience these may help:

First...your daily stop should be something you can get back in a timely matter. For me, this is about 1.5 days worth of earnings. You will be amazed how much better you trade the next day knowing there is a good chance you will be back to even or green at the end of the day. This works much better than being faced with the psychological aspect of trading more aggressively trying to make up for days if not weeks of earnings too fast.

Second...not having a hard daily target might help a lot with figuring out your daily stop. Try having a soft target where at that point you move up your daily stop. Give yourself the chance to continue being in "sync" with the market. When you start trading multiple contracts this might be a point where you drop down in size. You can also be EXTRA picky at this point knowing that it's no big deal if you don't take another trade. Many of my biggest winners have been in the last two hours of trading (time squeeze).

Third...figure out when you statistically trade the worse and don't trade it. For many people this is during lunchtime when volume is low.

Fourth...I follow the rule that if I have three stops in a row I stop, push back, and take a short break. I will then come back and review the reasons why I got stopped out. Obviously something is going terribly wrong be it psychological or just a market that isn't in sync with my strategy. If this is in the morning I may or may not trade the afternoon. If this happens in the afternoon I am done. In trading there is no room for revenge. The market doesn't care and will destroy you without skipping a beat.

Fifth...try to find a good combination of targets and trailing stops. There is usually no reason to take a losing trade when the target is missed by a few ticks. Many times at worse a breakeven can be achieved. Also, when trading with one contract you can still have more than one target. The first target could be an area where when reached you start a tight trailing stop. Many times this is very useful when S/R areas are in close in proximity.