Me too. Russian roulette trading without a stop in a potentially fast market, imo. Especially true for us scalpers that trade on high leverage and can get wiped by a huge spike.
Trading with a Stop Loss in the Futures Market is for Losers
- Thread starter emg
- Start date
Me too. Russian roulette trading without a stop in a potentially fast market, imo. Especially true for us scalpers that trade on high leverage and can get wiped by a huge spike.
A stop, more appropriately called "take loss", does not "manage risk".
Just a means to stack up losses. And effective for that.
Yes, some trades lose. The stop is simply recognition of the stats within your method, and acceptance of sound risk management.
While placing stops assures some losers ( hopefully small ones) - NOT placing stops assures rare but big losers.
Like, tidal wave losers.
Using your trade stats - or market action - or market stats - if you cannot see a sensible place to put a stop, then I suggest your trading method is poor, and sooner or later you'll hit the chamber with the live round in it.
As an ex-short term mean reversion player, fully automated - I can assure you that a stop is a necessary evil. Yes, you can rack up profits very fast with extremely wide stops/ small profit target.
But when it goes wrong - and it does eventually - it can bring account devastation on a spectacular scale.
It's certainly a necessary evil for those who don't know a better way to hedge.
Nobody says one has to trade "without stops", in the sense of "without protection". What is meant is that <b>there are much better and intelligent ways to hedge within a folio</b>.
Using "kiss" approaches like open/take profit/take loss (improperly called "stop"), does not lead anywhere, and just delays a little the liquidation time, keeping people entertained, and brokers happy.