Tag: Stop/Loss

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  • How to improve risk management in trading?

    How to improve risk management in trading?

    How to improve risk management in trading?
    Improving risk management in trading could be a life-changing factor.

    By Guy Avtalyon

    I’ll start straight to the point on how to improve risk management in trading. Risk management in trading very often stands very low on the priority list for many traders. The main concern is the entry signal or other indicators. I have to tell you this isn’t the right way. Nothing is wrong with waiting for the proper indicator, but if you don’t have decent knowledge about risk management in trading, you will not have profitable trades. The point is to know how to manage your risk, size your position for each trade, and set your orders accurately if you want to make a profit in trading.

    And you might think it is unnecessary, and it isn’t so important. If that is your case, feel free to not continue with reading this post. But I have to warn you that if you never improve risk management in trading, you’re at risk of becoming a steady loser. 

    And why should you be that if there are some tips to avoid the most common problems?

    Tips to improve risk management in trading

    If you adopt some of these tips or approaches, you’ll stop losing your hard-earned money.

    First, you must realize how you let the trade get out of your hands. Yes, it’s kind of looking back but never think about this as wasting your time. If you make a scrutinizing evaluation of your past trades that ended in losses, you’ll find the reasons behind them, and you’ll find the pattern. The main benefit of this introspection is to avoid similar behavior in the future. Knowing how and why you made mistakes, you’ll be prepared and will never repeat the same trading mistake in the future.

    Setting orders and the risk/reward ratio

    When you identify an entry signal, do you know where to set your stop-loss and take profit orders? You have to know that even before you enter the trade. How to do that? Let’s assume you know where to set the stop loss and take profit orders after determining the appropriate price levels. The next step should be to measure the risk/reward ratio.

    If you find out the risk is bigger than the reward, just skip the trade. The worst thing you can do is stretch the take profit order or squeeze your stop loss to reach a higher risk/reward ratio.

    Keep in mind; trading is mostly unpredictable, so the reward isn’t assured. The only thing you can control is the risk involved in your trades. You shouldn’t neglect that and act unreasonably. I’m a hundred percent certain that most of you determine the risk/reward ratio randomly and adjust your stops and profit orders to reach that ratio. Guys, it’s an entirely wrong way.

    Compare win rate and risk/reward ratio together

    Many traders insist that figuring out the win rate is pointless. But they miss out on a crucial point. Watching the win rate alone has no value, but if you observe win rate and risk/reward ratio together, you’ll be closer to winning trades. Having winning trades is every trader’s dream.

    I want to be clear with this, you shouldn’t necessitate an excessively high win rate. For instance, a trading strategy with a win rate of 40 percent requires a risk/reward ratio below 0.6 to be profitable.

    A win rate of 40 percent is average for the most profitable traders. Why should you want an insanely high win rate? That’s wrong and could lead you to significant losses.

    Balance win rate and risk/reward ratio

    You must find a balance between the win rate and the risk/reward ratio. For example, the high win rate could mean that the risk/reward ratio also is high. 

    Suppose you found a stock that is trading at $20, down from a recent high of $25. And you bought 50 shares because you had $1,000 for that purpose.

    If the stock price went up to $25, you can make $5 for each of your 50 shares, and in total it is $250. You paid $1,000 so you have to divide 250 by 1,000 and the result is 0.25.

    That means that your risk/reward is 0.25:1. It is a very low risk/reward ratio.

    Assume that you have made 15 trades, of which 6 were winners and 9 were losers. So, the win/loss ratio is 6/9, or 2:3. In percentages, the win/loss rate is 6/9 = 0.66. This means you are losing just over 66 percent of the time. Using your total number of trades which is 15, your win-rate would be 6/15 = 0,4×100 = 40%.

    You can be profitable with a 40 percent win rate if risk/reward is below 0.6. As can be seen from the formula for calculating the needed win rate for profitability based on the risk/reward ratio, 1/(1+ risk/reward ratio).

    The risk/reward decreases when the win rate decreases. In other words, if you have more losses, your winners must be bigger to be profitable.

    Size your position

    I’ve met many traders that size their positions randomly picking some levels of 2 percent, 4 percent, and never change that. It’s totally insane. You have to estimate the chances to win because trading is all about possibilities. It’s normal to change position sizing for every trade if it is necessary, and mostly it is. Why should you hold the same position size when you see virtually no chances of winning? 

    In trading, every strategy has a different win rate. So, the risk/reward ratio for each of your trades will vary. This is especially important if you trade using many strategies or setups.

    The point is to reduce the trades’ position size with low win rates and increase it for the trades with higher win rates.

    If you want to improve risk management in trading, you should never overlook the risk/reward ratio and money management. Otherwise, you’ll blow your account. If you take too much risk to make a quick profit, you’ll likely end up in losses. 

    You’ll go bankrupt because of a lack of knowledge about risk management. Now onwards, you have to rigorously adhere to position sizing and risk management if you want to be a profitable trader.

    Pay attention and improve risk management in trading

    You might love your trading style or some strategy, particularly, but you should consider improving it to achieve more profitable trades. After some time, everyone should jump to the next level. I know you could be impressed by indicators, waiting for the right signals to show you the right time to enter the trade. It’s so exciting and sexy, right?

    Well, it’s also risky if you never improve your risk management. It isn’t so exciting as watching the charts, candles, following the news, and waiting for the indicators, but it is essential for your future trades and your profits. Blinking indicators and trading strategies will benefit you for some time, but the real difference comes with improved risk management.

    Don’t be worried. A small number of traders really pay attention to this matter unless they have a series of losing trades. Then and only then. they will start thinking about how to improve risk management in trading. But you have a chance to shortcut this path. Why suffer losses if you can trade with more attention to the risk management from the beginning instead. 

    It doesn’t take too much. 

    Did I miss something? Share your opinion with me, leave a comment, ask me what else you would like to know. I’m here for you, guys.

  • Trading Forex without a stop loss

    Trading Forex without a stop loss

    Trading Forex without a stop loss
    Some professional traders don’t use a stop loss. So, why is it advised to traders: “never trade without a stop-loss”?

    By Guy Avtalyon

     

    There are numerous opposing data on the web when it comes to trading forex without a stop loss. A few years ago, I read an interesting article about professional forex traders who never used a stop loss. It was utterly conflicting with my opinion. Well, I think that using a stop loss can protect your trades from more significant losses. But I found that these traders don’t want the algorithm to catch them. They don’t wish to algorithms to know where their orders are settled. 

    Do I need to explain how big nonsense that is? You need stop-loss orders to protect your trades from huge losses. But they don’t use them.

    And there is why they never do that.

    Some of the professional forex traders are negligent and significantly rarely pay attention to risk management. Sometimes they are so sure in their ideas and things that they don’t need a stop loss.

    I’m sure you had a chance to read about or watch forex traders trying to get out of their losing positions like mad just to provide modest profit or just break-even.

    Some pro traders are unreasonable and unwilling to take a small loss if they are positive, they are right. In my opinion, this is irresponsible, and you cannot find many such traders staying in business for a long time. Usually, they end up burned.

    Why trading forex without a stop loss?

    Let me explain something. If you use a stop loss, you’re able to cut your losses quickly. When you place a stop-loss order, the trading platform will immediately close the trade when it hits that unfavourable level. On the other hand, a take-profit order is the highest level where you want to have profits. As you need to set a stop-loss order, you need to place a take-profit order no matter how strange it could sound. If you have a take-profit order in place, your trade is protected from price changes that can go against you.

    But you want to know if there is genuine proof that trading Forex without a stop loss is possible. Also, you might want to know a precise strategy that entirely eliminates setting a stop-loss order.

    And I’ll explain that particular strategy.

    Trading Forex without a stop-loss strategy

    Professional traders that never use a stop loss usually place a hedge on their initial position. You can find many methods to build a hedge and avoid setting a stop loss.

    One of the most popular ways is to place a sell order at the level of stop loss. Let’s assume you enter the trade with a buy order, but it moves against your favour. So, instead of setting a stop loss, you can place a sell order at the same level.

    It isn’t always a good move; very often, it can lead to a losing position. For example, if some unexpected but massive change in the market happens, you’ll lose a lot. Several years ago, it occurred to the Swiss franc. It increased in price enormously after it was unpegged of the Euro. Traders that didn’t place a stop loss for their trades that included sell orders for the franc had huge losses. That was a dramatic situation. So, you can avoid setting stop loss in trading forex, but you could face a lot of problems and huge losses.

    Traders that used this hedging strategy and bought the EUR/CHF with a pending sell order, but without stop-loss, didn’t make money. But, whoever placed the stop loss instead of the hedge, had a fantastic trading day. Remember, on that day; the franc beat the Euro by over 40%. It was in 2015.

    The arguments behind trading forex without a stop loss

    Some of these traders believe that using a stop loss means accepting losses before the price finally moves to your direction. In my opinion, if you think the same, maybe it’s time to analyse the stop loss placement. I’m sure you’ll find where the problem is. Possibly you’re placing stop-loss point too close to your entry point. Keep in mind, a stop loss’s purpose is to limit your risk in each trade. So, try not to misuse it. 

    Some traders believe the excellent trading system is to hold a losing position until the price hit entry point and finally converts to a winner. Basically, this kind of traders avoids taking a loss. But will the price always come back to entry-level? I’m not so convinced.

    Who can know will the price go up or down? No one is able to predict the exact movement of the price. 

    What I know for sure is the price will change for thousands of pips from the current price. That’s reality, and I’m not speculating. Do you really want to bet against this fact? Are you sure you can oppose it? Can you have a winning trades without a stop loss? I would never bet on it.

    Some traders could tell you the stop loss can be triggered by “stop hunting” managed by the big financial organizations and they don’t want their stop loss levels to be triggered accidentally. But we have to be honest with this because financial organizations are trading when important news appears. Such a situation could force the volatility in the market, it’s true. But you can place your stop loss far away enough to avoid the influence of the event. Anyway, if you’re a beginner in forex trading it’s better to miss trade during such a period.

    Professional traders trade without a stop loss is a legend

    You should ignore this. The truth is there always will be the wild traders in the market. Many would like to try their hands by taking too many risks. 

    Trading forex without a stop loss could expose you to huge losses, and your profits could be unprotected. I know, getting stopped out isn’t the most pleasant, also it could be painful. But, don’t you think it is better to exit the position than to have losses? What you really have to do is to size your position small enough. In this way,  your stop loss level will be hit on extraordinary circumstances.

  • Stop-loss First, Then Consider The Entry

    Stop-loss First, Then Consider The Entry

    Stop-loss First, Then Consider The Entry
    In stock trading, the essential part is to move quickly in and out of the position to profit more.

    Guy Avtalyon

    Everyone who even thinks about trading must understand the importance of stop-loss and why the Traders-Paradise team likes to say stop-loss first. 

    The stop-loss is one of the simplest tools from any trader’s toolkit. This order is connected to the stock’s movement, no matter if the fundamentals for the company have changed. The stop-loss first,  because if you use it you’ll have a greater chance to outperform the market. Let’s explain this. When the price of the stock goes down, the stock becomes more volatile, which means more risk. 

    Correlations between stocks and the market increase more when markets are dropping than when they are growing. So, the portfolio risk rises, and therefore diversification impact reduces. Increased volatility and higher risk, can expose stop-loss order as extremely important in risk exposure control. The gain could be potentially made by reducing the risk and getting a higher risk-adjusted return.
    Using stop-loss strategies you can reduce your emotional reactions while trading, and overcome the volatile market. So, the saying “stop-loss first” covers many situations when it is beneficial and we’ll show you some of them.

    Why stop-loss is the first consideration

    Stop-loss is the primary guarantee for profiting in the stock market. When you set your stop-loss order you’ll avoid risk, protect your principal, and survive the market volatility. It’s like the insurance premium.
    Risk control is the most important. For example, you just learned to ride a motorbike. What you have to know as a must?  You’ll have to know how to control the speed of falling. You’ll be safer.
    But when it comes to stop-loss orders, not every trader is confident where to set this order. Some even avoid thinking about it. Let us explain something. The stock market is a risky one, while you have one winning trade you might have up to ten losing trades. Don’t worry, that’s normal. But you cannot depend on good luck or count on it. What do you need? Skills and capacity to profit consistently. Otherwise, the stock market will dump you out. 

    Why is stop-loss important?

    One of the reasons to use stop-loss is because you trade with limited capital. That’s the rule, no matter if you are the richest trader in the world. Limited capital is required due to the necessity to protect your whole capital from losses. It is possible only if you use a stop-loss order. In other words, you must know what the maximum losses you can take per trade, per day, week, or month. That is trading discipline. You can maintain it only if you set a stop-loss order for each of your trades.

    Moreover, if you consider a stop-loss first, before your entry point, you’ll be able to profit faster and reach your financial goals. In stock trading, you don’t want to hold stock for a long time, and you’ll want to sell them. But if the desired price isn’t reached,  you’ll need to close the losing position as fast as possible and move onto another trade. Of course, you’ll have to compensate for your losing trade elsewhere. That to be said, in stock trading the essential part is to move quickly in and out of the position to profit more. Move your money quickly and with profit, that’s the point. But if you do it randomly you’ll be faced with losses. You have to ensure your trades. How to do that? By using stop-loss first, then you can think about new entries. Also, the bounce backs will be easier in case you have losses. The math can confirm that.

    For example, it is easier for $1000 to fall to $800, but a lot more difficult for $800 to bounce back to $1000. This is a loss of 20%. To compensate for this loss you’ll need about 25% appreciation and come back to the initial capital. But even after a 100% bounce, the stock will be back to its buying price. That’s why you need to use stop-loss orders. If you wait there is a chance for momentum to go more against you.

    What does stop-loss determine 

    In trading, using a stop-loss order is important to overcome the imperfection of indicators. You have to exit a trade if it goes against you. If you’re a buyer, your stop-loss order will be a sell order. Consequently, if you’re a seller your stop-loss order will be a buy order.
    If you’re a buyer, the stop-loss order is a sell order. And vice versa, if you’re a seller, it’s a buy order. For example, if you set your stop-loss order at 3%, you’re actually setting the amount of money you’re prepared to lose per trade.
    Stop-loss relates to indicators, money, or time.  It’s up to you to choose what type of stops you want to use. For instance, you’re buying a stock at $50 because the indicators you use are showing that for this particular stock potential gain could be $100. This means the stock price could reach $150. Your initial stop could be at $25 which is 50% of your initial capital and to get a chance to make $100. Here we come to the risk-reward ratio. In this case, it would be 100:25 which is 4:1. 

    In short, it determines how big a position to take.

    Why to use stop-loss first?

    To avoid the concentration of positions

    As a trader, you’ll run the risk if you extend your exposure excessively. For example, if you keep holding onto positions or average them, then the concentration can occur in your picked stocks.
    For example, you bought a stock at $50 and if it goes down to $45, you might want to average your position. You’ll want that to reduce the cost of holding, for instance. But if the stock price continues to drop, you might be motivated to average your position again. So what could happen? You’ll fall into the loop. You’ll repeat this mistake, and repeat again and again in an attempt to reduce the cost of holding. The better choice would be to use a stop-loss order at the level of the first decline and cut your position. Why would you like to keep a few positions and end up overexposed to their cumulative risks?

    Getting higher leverage  

    In stock, trading leverage is important because it provides you to trade with margin. For example, you put in a margin of $100.000 into your trading account. But you want to trade a stock whose current price is $1.800. So, you could buy about 55 shares. But your broker allows you 4 times more leverage because the company is highly liquid and you now can open positions up to $400.000. Instead of 55 shares, you can buy 220 because it’s the cover order. Let’s assume that the support level for this stock is at $1.750 and you set your stop-loss at $1.700. Let’s calculate your trading risk.

    220 x (1.750 – 1.700) = $11.000

    Since you have a margin of $100.000 in your account, the cover order reduces the risk. Yes, but only if you plan a stop-loss first.

    Advantages of this order

    If you count a stop-loss first, you’ll be able to cut your losses and you’ll be able to protect your trades against bigger losses when the stock price drops sharply. Further, the stop-loss will be automatically triggered if the stock price moves to a certain price. Moreover, you can maintain the risk-reward ratio. For example, you are willing to take a 3% or 5% or 10% risk to get a particular profit. A stop-loss order will help you to achieve that. One of the advantages is that you’ll be able to make trading decisions without emotions and despite the market noise. Also, the stop-loss will help you to execute your trades based on your trading strategy and to stick with it. 

    Disadvantages of using a stop-loss 

    Nothing is 100% sure in the stock trading so even the stop-loss has some drawbacks. For example, you set a limit order and also, you set a stop-loss order, to buy a stock on a particular date. What if your stock opens at a lower price (gap-down) during the pre-opening session? Well, your stop loss will never be triggered. You will end up with losses. Here is a possible scenario. You set a stop-loss at $25, but the stock opens on a gap-down at $23. The stock price didn’t reach your stop-loss so your sell order will not be achieved. 

    Also, a stop-loss can be triggered by short-term fluctuations. For example, the stock price first fell to $24 but then bounced and Increased to $35. But you set the stop-loss at $25 and your holdings will be traded automatically as that price is reached.
    When you calculate where to place a stop-loss order examine what was the range of the historical fluctuation for that stock. For example, you will not place a stop-loss at 3% for the stock with a daily fluctuation of 6%.

    If you want to be a profitable trader, you’ll need to plan every single action. Just like you know the buying price, you must know where to set a stop-loss first and take a profit level. If you don’t do this well, the whole process might end up in big losses. Also, poor stop-loss orders can cause them. The stock trading history is full of both great and ugly stories, so many ups and downs, winning trades and failures.
    Learn stop-loss first, then consider your entry! That’s the whole wisdom.

  • Exit Strategies For Smart Trading

    Exit Strategies For Smart Trading

    Exit Strategies For Smart Trading
    Most traders fail because they don’t have the exit strategies but they are maybe more important than entries. 

    Exit strategies for smart trading mean that you as a trader know where to stop losses and take the profit. Of course, you can’t do it randomly by setting stop-loss at 1%, 2%, 5%. Anyone who wants to become a trader must know the statistics: 90% of traders lose money when trading the stock market. Well, 10% make money all the time. Traders-Paradise’s aim is to show you how to trade smart, how to enter the elite club of 10%.
    Everyone seeks to be in the 10% who make money, but the number of those who really want to devote is surprisingly small. You will need exit strategies for smart trading. 

    But there is a problem. Exiting a trade makes traders hesitant. We want to explain exit strategies, their importance, and give you a chance to make a profit, not a loss. In simple words, we’ll explain to you how to do “smart trading”.

    Trading is easy but you need the know-how 

    Stop-loss (S/L) and take-profit (T/P)  are the two main points that traders have to plan ahead when trading. Successful traders know there are several possible results in trade. They know that they can exit too early or too late and miss out on the profit. The other solution is to exit a trade at an accurate time which results in making money. We want you to look right there, to the point where you can exit your trade in profit.

    Have you ever heard saying “let your profits run”? Well, some will run for a long time but some will fall on the start.

    If you want to earn in trading stocks you have to do something that others don’t. You need an exit strategy established for each trade. This means you must have a trading plan.

    Knowledge united with experience and effort to produce success

    To make this clear, you will not find any consistently profitable trader who will tell you that relies on luck. Every successful trader has great knowledge, experience, and trading goals.

    Some statistics tell us that learning to trade stocks requires two to five years of experience. Well, that’s hard work and commitment and there are no shortcuts. Don’t be worried or give up now! Trading stocks isn’t rocket science! The interesting thing with rookies is most of them seek for complicated solutions. Don’t let be seduced by gurus in the industry. The whole thing can be very simple.

    The exit strategies for smart trading

    One of the exit strategies for smart trading is to use targets to book partial profits. How does it work? Before you enter the position you have to define targets and when they come, take some part of your position off for profit. The portion of how much you’ll take off depends on your risk tolerance and trading plan. An experienced trader will take off 1/3 of their position or even half when the first target is scored. 

    Advantages

    This has several advantages. The stock market is volatile and stock prices are shifting direction quickly, so it is smart to book a part of the profit because you will not like to look at the market going against you. It is a bad experience and painful. So, try to avoid that. Well, when you take off some part of the profit, you will still have the other portion in the game. Smart enough? Anyway, this trading plan is simple. But there are plenty of other exit strategies for smart trading. 

    One of them is profit targets which means to identify the profit targets for the current cycle of stock. You would like to know where the price is possible to go. The point is to determine if you have to get out or stay in. But placing profit targets shouldn’t be randomly placed. So the most important feature you need is to check if your exit strategy is good. How can you do that – find HERE. This a game-changer. Check it out! Note, you shouldn’t place your profit targets too far away or too close.

    Stop-Loss strategy

    Did you make your first stock trade? What are you doing now? Are you relaxing and waiting to become a billionaire? Don’t do that! Even if you see your stocks running higher there will be one or few starting to fall. What are you going to do now? You have to know that just one loser can ruin your whole capital. 

    The point is that the stock market is risky and all money that you invest in stock may end up in 100% loss. Of course, you shouldn’t stop investing and trading. So, just take some steps to ensure that you reduce your losses. There is a way to do it. If you place a stop-loss, you practically ensure that your losses do not exceed a specified amount. A stop-loss order means to sell a stock when it enters an established price or percentage. For example, you bought a stock for $100 and you don’t want to lose more than 7%. All you have to do is to place a stop-loss order at $93. If your stock drops below $93 your stock will be automatically sold. The other possibility is your stock is going up. So, let’s say, it trades at $160. That’s a very nice profit of $60 or 60%. What can you do? Just lock in profit at $130, for example, and set a stop order at the same amount. 

    The benefits

    A stop-loss strategy provides you to stay in the game. If you put a 4% stop on your trades, you will never lose more than 4%, for example. It is simple, yet many traders do not use it. Moreover, they don’t have an exit strategy. We have to say, that isn’t trading, that is gambling.

    What stop loss percentage should you use? Some experts’ recommendation is 8%. At the moment you buy a stock, immediately put a stop-loss at the level you are willing to lose. Nothing less, nothing more. You can adjust your stop-loss order depending on the stock price direction. 

    Why exit strategies for smart trading?

    Exit strategies boost assurance and profitability. Calculate reward and risk levels before entering a trade, find a strategy to exit the position at the most profitable price, no matter if you are taking a loss or a profit.

    The traders caught the losses due to a lack of exit strategy from the trade before they entered the trade. 

    The majority just take the position in the stock market. Do they have any idea of where to exit the position? What to do if the stock moves in both beneficial or bad directions? A lot of traders ask for help after taking a position. Hence, you should never fall into that trap. You MUST have exit strategies for smart trading. Otherwise, you will lose your capital, home, family. Exit strategies bring discipline. It is important for every trader to take out the profit at the right time. Let us ask you something. Why are you trading stocks? To make money, of course. That’s why you are in the stock markets. Taking profits is the main goal, right? That is possible only and ONLY if you have an exit strategy.

  • Trailing Stop Loss Definition and Examples

    Trailing Stop Loss Definition and Examples

    3 min read

    Trailing Stop Loss Definition and Examples

    The trailing stop loss may be practiced with stock, options, and futures exchanges that support regular stop-loss orders. It is a variety of stop-loss order. A trailing stop-loss order is executed when the price of the trading asset drops by the trailing value which can be expressed in percentage or currency amount. 

    For example, you might place a trailing stop order to sell your stock with a trailing stop loss of 4%. When the stock dropped 4% from its nearest high the trailing stop order will be executed.

    For example, assume that ABC stock is in its uptrend and hits $100 per share. If you placed a trailing stop loss of 4% it would be triggered when the price drops to $96 or below. Hence, your trailing stop loss at 96%, the sell order at $96 would be a market order. Instead, you can set a trailing stop limit which would provide you to gain a specified price placed in advance.

    Also, instead of placing percentages you may enter a trailing stop loss in currency. It is more favorable. Let’s do some math.

    Let’s say, ABC shares increase to $120, a $4 trailing stop would trigger at $116, which is a 3,3 % drop. If you entered a 4% trailing stop, it wouldn’t trigger until the shares fell 4% to $115.
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    The mistakes about using a trailing stop

    A typical mistake is to set a trailing stop too close to the current price. For example, 1% or 2% trailing stop loss. Most stock prices are changing by at least a few cents per minute. If you set the trailing stop loss too tied to the entry it will be stopped out before any significant price moves occurred. 

    The best way is to set a trailing stop distance enough from the current price. If you keep in mind that that the market regularly fluctuates inside a 10 cent span, you would like to set it a bit far from that amount. But be aware, if you set it more from that range because it could happen that you never reach the placed point. The consequence is that the trailing stop could be invalidated and never executed.

    The point of using the trailing stop loss is to get you out of the trade if there is a high possibility of the price changing and destroying your profit on your trade. 

    Trailing stops are useful because they secure in profit when the price moves in our beneficial. The disadvantage is that sometimes they get us out of a trade when the price isn’t really changing, but simply pulling back a little. A good option to a trailing stop loss is to apply a profit target, have that in your mind.

    How to move a trailing stop loss 

    It is easy to find a lot of brokers that provide this type of orders. It’s up to you to choose how much space you want to in your trade. Think twice would you like to set it in percentages or currencies (you have both examples above). When you confirm the order it will move as the market moves because that is the nature of trailing stops: to move as the prices move. You can set it automatically or manually.

    Bottom line

    Traders use different systems to improve their profits and diminish the losses. One of these methods is the trailing stop order. It allows you to define the circumstances that will trigger an order to exit your position. It safeguards your trade against unexpected downturns.

    No matter if you are trading stocks, bonds or whatever, you must have a solid exit strategy. Moreover, you must have it before you buy the position. We already wrote about emotional trading. A good exit strategy will allow you to diminish fears. Let’s say your exit strategy is to wait for the price of your stocks to drop by 15%. You’ll be able to avoid trading in a panic if your stocks drop by 10%. That is the main purpose of applying a trailing stops and other stop-loss orders, to give you a plan to realize your exit strategy.

    Don’t miss this: Trading With Success – A FULL guide for beginners

  • How I Lost 10.000 dollars On A Trading Platform

    How I Lost 10.000 dollars On A Trading Platform

    How I Lost 10.000 dollars On A Trading Platform
    Lost money in trading isn’t a big deal. But lost self-confidence is the disaster.

    How I lost 10.000 dollars on a trading platform? It was a painful experience and I want to share that with you. When you hear that somebody lost $10,000 on a trading platform, what is your first thought? How stupid he/she must be!

    Thank you. I’m that one. I lost! So, what?

    My entire savings were gone. Don’t even think that I traded without knowledge. I went through all the forex courses available to the time and I’ve spent a lot of money to pay for them.

    Let’s go back to that moment in my trading history.

    Only a few hours ago everything was fine. But what happened? Let’s take a look. I lost! OMG, I lost all my savings!

    First of all, I was so-called, “day trader”. There was no reason I couldn’t have made a billion dollars day trading. Actually, I was the exception. I made a nice sum of money before stopping. The secret was that I treated the thing with respect. I did not plan to get rich overnight, but in a reasonable time, yes. My plan was to become indecently rich in 2-3 years. And I was on my way to becoming so. In fact, I was like many others. Becoming filthy rich for 2-3 years?

    How stupid I was!

    Fun fact: I was trading without proper preparation and education.

    Ha? What do you think about me now?

    I never listened to what my father told me:

    “Don’t gamble, it is not worth it. Build up your assets with honest work and time. There is a time and a place for everything. With gambling, enough is never enough.”

    I thought I knew everything and I have the holy grail in my hands. Just because I bought a trading robot. Yeah, that was very smart of me. Well, after 6 months, my trading account was gone. 

    Kaboom! It exploded and disappeared in its own smoke! That’s how I lost 10.000 dollars on a trading platform.

    I lost everything! How it was possible? I believed marketers and some guys with their “track records”, and hundreds, thousands of testimonials. It is hard to resist when you read or hear some of them.

    Would you really like to know how I lost 10.000 dollars on a trading platform?

    How I Lost 10.000 dollars On A Trading Platform

    Take a look at the image above. What can you see? Stop-loss levels. My trading strategy didn’t have stop-losses. I didn’t see the point of using it! The truth is, with a stop loss, you’d get sold out at a loss, and then the market would move back and you would have ended up making money if not sold. But I didn’t see that opportunity, I just wanted to earn a big sum of money.

    I had no strategy except to make money

    And I really believed that the robot knows what it is doing. I started investing slowly. It was fun. I checked the price of my investment, followed the news on Twitter, and talk about the company’s products. Then the stock price plummeted and I didn’t have a stop loss and that ruined me. Can you understand how I lost 10.000 on ta trading platform now?

    Only then I realized that I had chosen the wrong stock, the wrong company.

    My skipping of stop-losses and liquidating my position at a very low price. That triggered a chain reaction with all my positions being liquidated in a few minutes. The market was having one of its ‘corrections’. I’d received multiple margin calls overnight that had gone unanswered, so my CFD provider sold my positions out.

    The people I was playing against were in many instances the big financial institutions. These institutions’ employees aren’t so many traders as risk managers.

    I didn’t realize that trading is like a game of tennis.

    You need to know who your opponent is

    Today I know what was obvious, that this would never have worked. Do you really think that some rich guy believes in some trading robot account to make his buying decisions?

    Of course NOT! But  I have seen a number of miracles happen.

    And the truth is only ONE! Trading without the right knowledge leads to a deep disaster.

    When I see people who are day traders and they are following some crap newsletter or some coach with a fudged up track record, I am going crazy.  I can’t even see someone watching FOREX algorithm sales pitch or sniveling over some poor stock report.

    I have that one desire, I just want to say to them: you are guaranteed to lose money in any period of time unless you learn to trade well. If you trade without the proper education you should go to some casino or play the lottery. You would have better chances to win. Not to lost.

    Yes, how I lost 10.000 dollars on a trading platform? I faced that beast.

    The nature of the beast is that even if you are financially educated and you think you know everything about trading, investing or markets at all, you still haven’t guaranteed to win.

    For you to know, I’m not selling anything. It didn’t even cross my mind to teach you how to trade. Hm, maybe I could sell my ideas, I could run some newsletter and give you trading ideas? That kind of person makes a lot of money, indeed. And they are generous when they have some secret ideas to share with you for free.

    How I lost 10.000 dollars is true BS! 

    I am not saying all that information is bad, you just have to be careful and try not to follow anyone uncritically.

    The Forex systems and robots stirred by internet marketers are a joke. Especially if you think that’s how they make money on Wall Street. And believe me, they DO make tons of money. The markets are full of sharks and they will eat you quickly if you don’t stick to simple and reasonable rules instead of their predatory advice.

    Forget about making 20% per month. That’s how poor people like to think.

    I learned a few key points when I lost on a trading platform exactly $10,000. My risk tolerance was pretty high. I never felt the need to sell. I regret losing the money, but I never regret making the investment.

    The lesson to myself was: you have to know whether it will move up or down and markets must agree with your judgment and you also need to know when the stock will move.

    To be successful with individual stock investing, you must predict its future movement AND when that movement will come. You’ve got to be fluid as a trader and there are no guarantees.

    The Forex market is the most volatile market in the world and therefore it cannot be manipulated.

    KISS, live long and prosper, and trade smartly!