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Re: Stops



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I can see that people are getting upset with this thread, so before it gets
out of hand, let me say this is my last on the current subject:

>The only time I do not put stops physically in the market is when I am day
>trading, am prepared to monitor the price action, have a stop level marked
>on my chart, and have a market order already ready to fire.
>
>Earl


So far as I am concerned, Earl, has summed it up nicely.  Forgetting the
where, the r/r/r, etc, that at the end of the day is how I trade - i.e. day
trade on the bonds.   All of Earl's comments on position trading, I can see
makes a lot of sense.

Next point:

Stewart wrote:  "Damn right I want to be stopped out of a fast market."

Don't we all!  The point I was trying to make was that when those
conditions happen, the likelihood is that the market will go straight
through your stop.  You will get an appalling fill, usually at the bottom.
If it doesn't bounce back, then you can take your own action.  If it was
really bad, then only an option could save you anyway - as Brent suggests.

Stewart also wrote:  "It just as easily could have gone another 700 or 1400
or 2100 or 2800 against you as come back to unchanged."

He is, of course, quite right to say that it might do any of those things.
But when has it?  Was there a break, or are we saying straight up or down?
If the latter, when would one expect your stop of say 6 ticks to be filled?

When you do your research on the bonds, you know the odds of how far it
will move.  Tell me the last time the bonds went limit (3pts) up or down.
Tell me how many times it went half a point without a stall in between,
etc.   You have to do your research and then settle on the odds.  Then work
within a capital structure that allows you, within the r/r/r to have that
money at the back of you, if a really large unexpected move happens.  You
have to have the right capital to trade at your level of risk.  I say all
this for the benefit of the the newbie not seasoned pros, naturally - and I
only speak on the bonds, day trading.

It always sounds the best advice to put stops in the market and for
position players, perhaps anyway, and in certain markets, perhaps anyway,
but in the bonds - depending on how you trade - it may be better to be
disciplined with your stops, but not in the market.   That is what I have
found and what I advocate.   But don't let's get heated over it.

It is when I hear people talking about 'hope', I wonder how they trade.  If
stops are there to stop you 'hoping' when the market moves against you, it
is not stops you want to worry about - it is whether or not you ought to be
trading!

Anyway, there are many different trading ideas on RT - and long may it be
so, for the sake of everyone to gain from the various views.

'Nuff said!

Bill Eykyn
www.t-bondtrader.com