The Break Even Stop is a Psychological Crutch for Newbies

[Turveyd]

A BE trade or there abouts, is a Null Trade, you risked X for making ZERO, don't get me wrong sometimes it might be the right call, but most of the time it's hit and the market reverses and you could of taken a small profit if nothing else shortly after.

You may of exited at Zero, but you have to make another trade sooner or later, that has spread / comms, SL risk all over again, as you've already accepted the risk, why not keep some risk on ( reduced maybe ) and see if it can run.

SL, should be at a turning, point, if market breaks XXXX it will drop quickly, so SL just into that.

Same with SL's which are too tight, how many times are they hit just to reverse, just from a bit f meaningless noise.

 

[taowave]

For the life of me,I can not fathom why these threads exist with strong opinions and not a single shred of any credible statistical analysis validating ones beliefs.

 

[Turveyd]

For the life of me,I can not fathom why these threads exist with strong opinions and not a single shred of any credible statistical analysis validating ones beliefs.

Errrm it's a BELIEF end of story.

 

[Autodidact]

For the life of me,I can not fathom why these threads exist with strong opinions and not a single shred of any credible statistical analysis validating ones beliefs.

That would be hard work, how many are willing to share hard work for free ? That is probably the answer to your question.

 

[lindq]

For the life of me,I can not fathom why these threads exist with strong opinions and not a single shred of any credible statistical analysis validating ones beliefs.

I can provide you with the analysis of 14 years of trading and experience. I've set hundreds of break-even stops (because I'm much too risk averse), and in the vast majority I've been very sorry I've done so.

I just did it again today, and missed a 2-point move off the bottom on TNA when I moved my stop to break-even and got hit. I had my reasons for doing it today, but still, it was a stupid thing to do. And it nearly always is.

Day-trading is not about saving a small loss on a single trade. It is about maximizing equity growth over time. And break-even stops are counter to that objective.

 

[Autodidact]

The market, in my humble opinion, has something in it's DNA that makes it oscillates to a turning point more often than not hunting for break even stops of typical entry signals.

 

[Turveyd]

The market, in my humble opinion, has something in it's DNA that makes it oscillates to a turning point more often than not hunting for break even stops of typical entry signals.

That very same oscillation is how I profit.

But without taking the profit, it will ofcourse go towards the SL / BE, it's about taking the profit before it turns on you.

 

[Autodidact]

That very same oscillation is how I profit.

But without taking the profit, it will ofcourse go towards the SL / BE, it's about taking the profit before it turns on you.

Perhaps better to wait until it actually takes those stops before entering, once it does, if it does it again, most probably you are wrong. In other words, enter after the break-even stops were hunted, this of course means you will miss a trade where no stop hunt is done due to exhuberant strength.

 

[Turveyd]

Perhaps better to wait until it actually takes those stops before entering, once it does, if it does it again, most probably you are wrong.

The down/up spike, which quickly reverses, is generally the SL's being hit before it reverses.

Take the reversal, SL just under the SL hitting low incase it's wrong.

1 of my setups!

 

[Autodidact]

The down/up spike, which quickly reverses, is generally the SL's being hit before it reverses.

Take the reversal, SL just under the SL hitting low incase it's wrong.

1 of my setups!

Ya I know what you mean, aware of the setup concept.