Trailing Stops

Like the .30 stop, DayTraderNYC used.
About .30 on a 30.oo stock:about .44 on a $44.oo stock.

Hit my stop unless it ride s my moving averages.A little bit more than 1 % but using discretion,and much chart reading.

In a bear market daytrade, watch the clock more.More likely sell before my mental stop gets, the more 30 minute candles are on the chart. Helps me to write my stop next to the bid price ,often.

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''Enjoy your read'' Alan Greenburg-Bear Stearns
 
Sometimes I try to use NX though, but someone else beats me barely or someone else has NXed it within 30 seconds from my firm (which means no one else can for 30 seconds), and I miss out completely. Meanwhile, the person next to me who bought market is filled (maybe at that price, maybe 5 or 10 cents higher) and is now in a stock that is likely moving up and fast. If I still like it, I end up putting in a new order market, but now I may be paying up a quarter more than if I'd gone market in the first place. I'm not saying that this always happens.

Another possibility is that I NX it and get filled at the offer, but then the guy next to me, who almost always goes market, gets a better fill between the bid and offer (or at the bid for that matter).

Then there are specialists who get really pissed off at times when people keep NXing, and that specialist may intentionally try to fuck the people who are NXing at that time. And this DOES happen sometimes!

Of course, sometimes I successfully go market, and other times I might successfully NX an order that results in a good trade. All that I'm saying is that NX can work for you sometimes, and it can work against you sometimes!
 
I think a lot of it is traders personality,stock personality.:cool:

''Seanote''did over $200 k this year,much of it realtime on elitetrader . com . Used about 10% stop on swing trades.

If you know a stock like SPW has trouble clearing $100 resistance,I would tend to sell beore mental,written stop is reached.

Think i will try that .30 stop on stocks over$30.00 Personally when I trade a $12 stock would tend to use about .12 area for mental,written stop.[bear market daytrade]

_''Enjoy your read''_ Alan Greenburg- Bear Stearns
 
I have never liked trailing stops. They always get you out at a bad price, ie on a pullback. I can see locking in some profit on a swing trade if you have to be away for a while, but otherwise, I think you are better off trying to exit on a strong move in your favor if you're daytrading or off a reversal pattern on a position trade.

For newbies, there is some security in placing hard stops, but I don't think it is a good idea for experienced traders. You will find that you know a trade has gone bad, but since it is so close to your stop anyway, you just let it ride. result is you end up taking max loss each time.

My opinion is that stops should be wide enough that they are hit only in emergencies. You should exit losing trades because your entry set-up failed, not because a tight stop was hit. A stop that is smaller than the ave range on a 5 min bar is too tight for me. I know the response will be " hey , I can't afford to take that big a loss." My answer is you will just end up losing it over more trades, but you might miss the monster trade that makes your year.
 
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