
I'm trying to learn to trade the futures more actively these days and have decided to try trading the /YM, with very small positions while I am learning. I am looking for some advice - here is a trade I placed today. When I look at it I think generally it should have been a good trade. I went short pretty close to the high and the market went down a fair amount after I went short. However, I lost money on the trade because my stop order hit at the absolute top. I was only trading 1 contract so the loss was only $90. Realistically I could have placed the stop 100 point above my entry (YM is $5/point so I would be risking a $500 loss, not something I want to take but it certainly wouldn't wipe me out). However, I did not do this because I am trying to develop good habits and everything I have read suggests that if you are trading futures you need to accept small losses, so my stop was placed a few points above the high of 1202 that was made at 13:54. My question is this: Is it better to place the stop at a much higher level, thereby accepting the risk of a much larger loss but lessening the chance of getting shaken out as happened to me on this trade, or did I play this well and should I just accept the bad outcome as the way it goes sometimes? I will gladly consider any advice/criticism about how I handled this trade. Thanks.
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