As a Forex trader, most of us have heard the motto “cut your losses short and let your profits run.” It sounds simple enough, right? Well, to be honest, it really isn’t if you’re not familiar with the very useful tool for all traders known as the trailing stop. The trailing stop is just like a typical stop and loss order with the difference being you can move it along with the market’s volatility.
Money management is a core ideology in the trading world. This money management comes in both the form of managing your profits correctly, and correctly managing your losses. Managing your losses can come in many forms from cutting them short to stopping trading from the day. Managing your wins can come in similar forms, such as proper take profit placement and stopping trading after certain criteria have been met. Regardless of your management method for both wins and losses, having a system in place is required for your trading to progress to the level that allows for you to live off of your trading and even to have it just as a secondary income-generating stream.
Stop losses are an integral part of trading. Even scalpers like Shawn Lucas who scalp and close trades manually before too large a loss occurs use stop losses. Using a stop loss comes in two forms, one of which you use for safety and the other you hope you don’t use and can bring agony to your trading. What are some of the most important things to remember when using and setting your stop losses?