What is your strategy when a trade goes against you

[jperl]

You enter an intraday trade long, and the trade immediately goes against you.
What do you do? Here are several possibilities:

1)You exit the trade at your preset stop and wait for a new entry
2)When the price action hits a support point, scale in
3)When the price action drops below a support point, reverse the trade and increase size.
4)exit on the close of the day and take a loss whatever that is.
5)exit when my risk tolerance is hit.

There may be other options.
Let's here from you and tell us what you would do.

[walterw]

Me : option 1... cheers Walter.

pd : new entry would be complete new setup...

[TheBramble]

Option 1, but without the "...and wait for a new entry".

If you're wrong, you're wrong. Get on with frying other fish.

By the same token, just because you called it wrong last time, doesn't mean you stay shy of that stock. It has no memory of you.

[brownsfan019]

I am option #1 as well. There's no point of placing a protective stop if you have no plans to honor it. When you are wrong, get out. You can get back in when the time is right.

Now, with that being said, I think stop placement is key here as well. If you have a stop that is routinely being taken out and then the trade moves in your favor, you might need to adjust your stop placement methodology.

[cooter]

	Quote:	brownsfan019
	I am option #1 as well. There's no point of placing a protective stop if you have no plans to honor it. When you are wrong, get out. You can get back in when the time is right. Now, with that being said, I think stop placement is key here as well. If you have a stop that is routinely being taken out and then the trade moves in your favor, you might need to adjust your stop placement methodology.

Which also means that your entry might be suspect too. And thus your trade setup might not be truly valid.

Risking 4 points on a stop to earn 1 point won't make you much $$$ in the long run, will it?

[Soultrader]

Im a mixture of 1 and 3 except I dont increase size.

Depending on the area of S&R, I may have a stop double the size so it will reverse my position.

[brownsfan019]

	Quote:	cooter
	Risking 4 points on a stop to earn 1 point won't make you much $$$ in the long run, will it?

I don't think so...

I also don't recall saying risking 4 pts to make 1 was a good idea either. :p

[brownsfan019]

	Quote:	cooter
	Which also means that your entry might be suspect too. And thus your trade setup might not be truly valid.

I disagree. If your method says to enter based on XYZ, then you enter based on XYZ. We can't say the a setup is not 'valid' if you enter your trade based on the conditions you set. If your conditions are met, then that's a valid trade regardless if it's the greatest entry point possible. The point I was making was that the protective stop placement is very important, esp at the start of the trade. Reason being that many traders are too eager to place an initial stop too snug (since that provides comfort knowing you are not risking that much) or moving your initial stop too quickly (for sake of protecting that little profit). I constantly have to monitor my stop movement b/c I am eager to get that stop moved so that I can't 'lose'. Well, if you get ticked out of a trade that is a winner, you just 'lost'.

[cooter]

	Quote:	brownsfan019
	I constantly have to monitor my stop movement b/c I am eager to get that stop moved so that I can't 'lose'. Well, if you get ticked out of a trade that is a winner, you just 'lost'.

So when do you move up that "wide" spread then? Sounds like a touchy-feely sort of "rule", rather than a hard-and-fast trade parameter, no?

[cooter]

	Quote:	brownsfan019
	I disagree. If your method says to enter based on XYZ, then you enter based on XYZ. We can't say the a setup is not 'valid' if you enter your trade based on the conditions you set.

Sure, we can. Your ENTRY may be valid, but based on the faulty premise of your trade setup which may not be valid.

	Quote:	brownsfan019
	If your conditions are met, then that's a valid trade regardless if it's the greatest entry point possible. The point I was making was that the protective stop placement is very important, esp at the start of the trade.

And the point I was making is that your trade setup might not be valid to begin with, especially if you are always getting stopped out.

Of course, your definition of valid and validity might vary....