Do you use Trailing stops, hard stops or both?

[KCalhoun]

Good discussion topic -- what type of stops do you find yourself using the most?

I use hard stops at 2day lows for swingtrading then manually raise them as needed.

For daytrading I've found it best to use both, depending on the chart. I'll often use a combination of both, to minimize being shaken out.

What's your preference?

 

[SteveM]

I'm trying to follow a trading system 100% religiously right now with hard stops.

I find the more discretionary things I do, the worse the outcome becomes over the long run..."holding losers too long, taking profits too soon" as the saying goes...

 

[guru]

No stops. (swing trades)

 

[KCalhoun]

SteveM, great point, I'm the same with swingtrading, I always scale out on ones losing 2day low support, being strict is key.

For daytrading I use automated trailing stops a lot, to manage V or A shaped midday reversals

 

[Laissez Faire]

I always use hard stops and I aim to never use more than 5 point stops. Ideally less. Largest stop out this week was 4,25 points. The times I use 10 point stops I tend to regret it, so I try to avoid that.

I tend to trail aggressively as price close in on my target and often use it to exit. I might not get the maximum out of each trade this way, but occasionally, the market picks up steam and I can get more than I originally anticipated by trailing. So for now, I'm comfortable with that way of managing my trades.

I find that trailing works best on momentum moves (ES). Otherwise simply trailing a stop when you see some green on your ladder is usually a great way to get stopped out prematurely of a trade that needs time to develop and where price can zig zag quite a bit before finally reaching your profit target.

 

[Girija]

With Programs I am able to use a dynamic exit anytime so I dont place the stop when buying.
I trade ES manually and today I had a bad day with algo manipulative moves eating my hard stops. I thought I had it wide enough and they still came looking for me.
Nothing worked for me in ES today as both long and short ways went against me.

 

[Tradex]

As a pure trend-follower I use a trailing stop, as I don't want to exit the trend prematurely.

 

[Specterx]

I'm trying to follow a trading system 100% religiously right now with hard stops.

I find the more discretionary things I do, the worse the outcome becomes over the long run..."holding losers too long, taking profits too soon" as the saying goes...

If you're a trend follower or swing trader, you really have no choice but to trail or advance stops - not doing so is just poor risk management. If you only maintain your original stop, then as the trade progresses your risk becomes enormous relative to both your initial risk and the remaining incremental reward.

There's no best method to advance stops. In my experience the smoothest equity curve comes from managing the trade in several layers, some trailed quite close and others further away. Every trade is different though and it really depends.

 

[smallfil]

I use loose trailing stops since, I swing trade as well as trend follow stocks and options. You never know how far a trend will end up at.

 

[Turveyd]

Auto Trailing Stop MT4 EA, generally between 5pts and 8pts with NQ and DAX.

Don't use it to take profit, find most of the time it'll chop me to death doing that, just to reduce risk if it goes my way for a while.

PM me if your MT4 user and want the code!