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Moving your stop loss to breakeven: what your journal says

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Tradoshi teamOfficial

We will not say whether you should: we give no advice, and the answer depends on the strategy, the instrument and the person. What it is, though, is one of the rare decisions whose effect a journal can measure exactly, and that is far more useful than an opinion.

WHAT THE MOVE DOES, mechanically. It removes the loss on that trade, and it adds a new way for it to end: a return to the entry price before the target is reached. It therefore turns some losers into flats, AND some winners into flats. The question is not whether the first effect exists, that much is obvious. It is which of the two is larger ON YOUR TRADES.

WHAT TO MEASURE TO DECIDE, and all of it sits in a journal that is being kept.

First, the share of trades that came back to the entry price and still went on to reach the target. Those are exactly the ones the move would have cut. That figure reads from the MAE, the maximum adverse excursion, compared to the entry.

Second, the share of losing trades whose MAE shows they touched breakeven before running away. Those are the ones the move would have saved.

Third, the comparison of both totals in money, not in count: one winner cut can be worth several losers avoided.

Those three readings are taken on the history already there, without risking a cent and without waiting three months. It is the only honest way to answer this question, and the answer is not the same for two traders.

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Trading involves a risk of loss, up to the entire capital committed. Tradoshi is a journaling and analytics tool: we provide no financial advice and guarantee no result. Futures and forex trading contains substantial risk and is not for every investor: an investor could potentially lose all or more than the initial investment, and only risk capital should be used for trading. Hypothetical performance results have many inherent limitations: they are generally prepared with the benefit of hindsight, involve no financial risk, and no representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve similar results. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Full risk disclosure.