Is trading YM too risky?

[chuckie]

Hi,

I've been trading YM for a little while now and am happy with what I've been doing. However, the spikes this week are concerning me. I wasn't in a trade in either case, but what would have happened if I had been?

I'm wondering what would have happened to my stop had I been long in either instance. Say I had been long with a 10 point stop and all of a sudden there was a huge dip like we have seen. What would have happened to my stop? Where would I have been filled? If I had been filled 150 points away that would be like having 15 losers in a row assuming my average stop is 10 points.

Are there any ways to protect myself in these cases?

I know there are risks with trading, but I'm wondering if this market is too easy to move? Should I go back to trading ES?

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Businessman]

If you can watch the screen, then use a stop limit order
with say an extra 20pts as the limit.

And exit manually if the move down was a real move (ie not a spike) that went through your stop limit price.
This manual exit is unlikely to be much worse than having a free
stop loss in the market but has the advantage of not being
taken out by spikes.

If you are away from your screen you cannot rely on this method.

 

[bladerunner]

use bracket ordering and trailing stop;
they are invaluable esp for index futures.