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Traders who use trailing stop losses, when do you move your stop to break even? Assuming that breakeven in Nifty Futures is about 2 points and that in BNF is about 4 ( I am including STT here). How many points in profit do you wait for before moving the stop to breakeven.
One side of this is that if you move it ASAP, there is a good likelihood of you actually getting stopped out due to noise and worse still..you could end up missing the big move for which you got into the trade in the first place. Essentially you trip over pennies missing dollars
The other side being that you could have a small profit which could very quickly turn into a loss and you regret not moving the stop earlier.
Also in line with this.. how long (price wise or time wise) do you wait before moving the TSL after the first moving to BE. Basically how much MFE( Maximum Favourable Excrusion) to tolerate.
Timeframe in question is Day time frame without overnight carry.
Looking for inputs from experienced trades.. Thanks in Advance!
Firstly, all this depends on how you enter?
a) Are you chasing price <-- in the rush of moves, mostly WRB, sudden spurge in vol etc
b) or Plan on a pullback <-- at micro pattern reversal signs in calmer conditions
If you're in entry A, expect to be chopped, so you need a big SL at the bottom (or top) from where move started.
Contrary, entry B is wise, and hence a smaller stop and more support from the buyers/sellers watching that level.
Secondly, you should be aware of the nature and volatility of the instrument on average days and on its vola days so NF and BNF are very different.
Your stops will be adjusted to nature of scrip.
Moving SL to BE. This is also purely on the chart when another minor pivot is formed, not before, i'd rather my stop gets hit.
That pivot is sign where the fresh buyer (or seller) will ensure price to hold.
Trailing: Same as above, never move stop in greed terms, trail the minor pivots that are formed, you have higher chance of riding the wave.
if some WRB comes around and knocks everyone out, so be it, atleast you stuck to the plan.
...
small profit which could very quickly turn into a loss and you regret not moving the stop earlier...
The sooner you get this out of your head, it will be better for your ledger,
and to counter this point you should build confidence in re-entry. I've now taken so many re-entries and i started feeling very happy.
This is how you turn winners into losers back into winners.
Above all this, have RR/RM rules, so that will prevent you from overtrading and revenge trading.
Last but not least, accept fact that you were wrong taking a trade and be free to reverse position.
I avoid posting screenshots, but just to back what I'm talking about see this:
I decided to short BNF, few min later price action didn't confirm and waited for reversal. Then went Long and recovered from loss made and good points. Infact I almost caught the top but that part of exit is in my next point.
Exits:
I will mostly exit when TSL is taken out, you can't get the entire move all the time.
The only precondition of an exit which is manual is when price goes into resistance (like today) or a support.
That can be DH,DL, PC whichever looks solid. Bcos its given that the opp. side is waiting to enter at those levels.
I hope the entire lifecycle of both sides was explained