[ZenMachine]

Originally Posted by thalestrader »

Your trade looks fine if I am reading your post correctly. You shorted just below 95.41, and it looks like the first profit target was hit, and quite possibly the second as well.

You would think, right?

But what you didn't know is that I actually had moved my stop down to what I had thought was a strong R line - Prior day's high.
I got stopped out before the price moved down again to hit my 1st Target...

(Sorry, I wasn't trying to hide it. Just forgot to upload it because I was too busy hitting myself)

Hopefully I've learned not to mess with initial stop positions casually.

[ZenMachine]

Originally Posted by forrestang »

Oh it's entertaining

Join the club!

Thanks Forrest!
Glad you enjoyed it!

-zen

[BlowFish]

Originally Posted by thalestrader »

I guess this shows that sometimes, the correct stop, though a larger risk in both nominal dollars and % equity, is often less risk in reality than a tighter stop.

IMHO this is one of the more difficult part of trading (more difficult than finding entries). Do you aggressively bring the stop to BE? Probably unwise for BO trades as the break is often re-tested. How aggressively do you trail a stop, if at all? Do you close if price stalls 10 pips before your target? Watching price retrace 50% (or completely) to stop you out above the last SH is not fun. How do these considerations effect your overall profitability, more importantly how do they effect your 'comfortability'?

I think that not truly accepting your losses or constantly fretting about minimising them or worse avoiding them completely ultimately can lead to poor execution and indecision. Been there, got the tee shirt.

[Gabe2004]

Pictures from a hind sight are useful but looking into failed or successful entries or setups would be even more so.
So I was marking 15m and 1H EJ charts to see which condition would be the the least prone to whipsaws.
The jury is still out.
Thales wrote that previous sing points or areas could be used as Continuation points, Reversal points or both.
It seems to me that reversals at a given point occur more often than continuations but the profitability of reversal pattern would be less compared with a continuation pattern.

The picute is highly compressed. If any one has a problem with it's clarity, please let me know.

Gabe

[Gabe2004]

And some more charts.
This time these are 5 minute charts (6 lower) of the 15 minute chart (above).

[thalestrader]

Hi Folks,

My daughter tried a long on the EURJPY. She moved up to a full mini lot tonight (10K). Her buy stop was 135.25, her initial stop loss was to be 134.88, with 50% profit targets at 135.60 and 135.95.

fxcm changed the way stops and limits are entered through their platform, and she was not prepared for how difficult they apparently have made the process. At any rate, I had her move her stop to 135.30 when she was up +20 ticks because neither she nor I could figure out how to get fxcm's new OCO order method to work properly (I thought I was beyond basic order entry years ago, but apparently not).

She was indeed stopped out for +5 ticks. Looks like she and I will be looking for instructions at fxcm's website on how to use their platform. She does not typically have temper, but she is so angry at fxcm that I had to laugh at her (and now she's a bit angry with me too). If we figure this thing out, she may re-enter as price is now back to her entry.

I attached the chart so you can see her trade. Someone had also asked for a shot of her trade blotter. I really don't see what that adds, but I took a shot of it and included it here. I think most folks learn much more from a chart.

Best Wishes,

Thales

[thalestrader]

Originally Posted by Gabe2004 »

The picture is highly compressed. If any one has a problem with it's clarity, please let me know.

Hi Gabe,

Either the charts are blurry, or I have to get my eyes examined. Perhaps it would be better if you zoomed in on sections and perhaps made a few notes, either in the charts themselves or in the body of the post.

I think what you are doing could be a very useful excercise, but is not as clear as it might be.

Best Wishes,

Thales

[diablo272]

Yes, those charts Gabe posted are pretty blurry. Gabe, try compressing with higher quality JPEG or PNG instead.