I kinda do time, but sometimes the trend is still valid and 10mins down the line it jumps up 20pts. I have Code that runs the SL and moves and stops me moving it much, although it's got a min distance so I can move it further away, but it'll snap to 6pts away ( NQ ), but I can keep moving it in small increments. But what generally happens in, it goes against me, hits SL then I get back long 4pts higher than the SL and repeat 5x's at 8pts per time so -40pts and it's only dropped 20pts LOL Do this crap less and less, but still get tired, stupid, distracted emotional days. A distracted trader is a bankrupt trader!!
I found it's useful to put the brakes on using "progressive downscaling", eg if trade 1 at 100 shares stops out, trade 2 is 70 shares etc Also 3 strikes rule per stock/etf daily, eg 3 stops in a row limit On the flip side, when in the money I often trade more positions, including last hour
Let it ride. You cant make 100 pts unless you let it ride. The mentality has to be 100pts or the stop loss or the market close, which ever comes first. Even better, stop loss or market close, which ever comes first. Let it ride to the market close or even till next day if you can bear to hold overnight. All easier said than done!!
I keep falling for trying that, get to +20 or +30 then reverse sharp and hit the SL again and again and again. I just daytrade near scalp, can't / won't hold over night, I accept the first stall and be happy, when I don't do that, I suddenly get a row of losers.
Yes, i sometimes get 15 losers in row, my win rate is only 35%. But you have to let the winners ride.
I can't do that, I go NUTS, I've realised, but I keep going back to doing that, I just end up not wanting to lose and taking massive losers. 64% I think this week win rate!!
The ideal would be to add the winners for example buying 5 contracts, then 3 and then 1. (But for that you need a good trend, something that does not happen many times in the indexes) But we usually do just the opposite by adding the losers, we buy 1, then 3, and then 5. Then the price does not go in the desired direction, we do not admit the error and inevitably the account explodes. Thats the big problem.
It does not matter the number of contracts. The trade must have the maximum probability of success. Its not like that, you must jump the stop. There is no other way. The problem is that institutions accumulate at various levels. The difficult thing is to see at what level the price will decide to take off. This is not so easy.
Losing everything in a single losing trade should never happen under normal circumstances. Surely before placing a trade, the maximum loss permitted per trade and stop placement will determine the trade size. I always use a % daily loss limit which is obviously larger than a trade % loss. Trade size is determined by % trade loss with trade size reduced to keep potential loss within % daily loss, so that the daily loss limit should not be hit.