M5 Chart
M1 Chart
I guess that if you click on the charts and take a look at it, you might feel as upset as I did!
Marked a good M5 FIBCON right after the volatility of the London open vanished, waited for it and pressed Ctrl+E right there, on the edge of a reversal that happened after a short hesitation.
Having the M1 MAB above my entry level wasn’t that exciting, but I decided to let it run at least until it goes above my 1R level. Locked in profit after touching +1.5R (as there was a RR zone looking to the left in the M5 chart), raised my take profit level to the H1 bear channel boundary and left it alone.
The rest is history. Retraced to my entry level, left me out of the trade and went non-stop to my target. A +3.5R ended up being a +0.08R trade.
Should I have left my stop loss at the original level (-1R)? Did I do right locking profit in order not to lose money in case the trend changed? I don’t know.
I think the answer could have been: take profit at +1.5R where the RR zone was, see what happens and if it comes back down and you like it, enter another trade. Worst case scenario, you end up +0.5R. In this case, I would have ended securing +4R.
Hi Alex, I feel your pain!!
This is such a tough call when it comes to moving your stop when the trade has gone into profit.
Lots of times I’ve experienced this, reducing risk, locking in profit, getting stopped out only the see price to go on and be a winner.
What I’ve settled on is trailing my stop but keeping it behind Grid structure that supports the setup. If that structure fails I want to be out of the trade.
So on this occasion, if you felt you wanted to reduce your risk but also ‘trust’ Grid structure that supports the setup then maybe moving the stop to just below the M5 EQZ mid-line at 12376.1 would have been a good option?
If the mid-line fails you’d want to be out of the trade but if it holds you’d want to stay in the trade and this occasion your traders equation would have been:
1) If the mid-line fails you take a -0.5R loser.
2) If the mid-line holds you have a 2R or more winner.
I hope this helps……
It is definitely a good alternative and it makes sense. Me wanting not to lose made me choose a poor level to move my stop loss to.
On the other hand, being able to secure +1.5R on your first trade of the day should be a no brainer, shouldn’t it? If I detected a RR level and I see that price doesn’t go through it, I could easily close and wait. Anyway, another lesson from Mr. Market!
Monitoring which method would have resulted in more profit is the only way to know what works best for you.