Been trading for a while and keep seeing mixed opinions on this. Some traders swear by tight stops, others say they just get you shaken out.
Started wondering if there are actually situations where going without stops makes sense. What has your experience been?
Did the no-stops thing for 6 months when I started. Yeah, I made decent money on winners, but one nasty EUR/USD trade almost killed my account.
It’s not just about risk - the mental game destroys you. You’ll hold garbage trades forever thinking they’ll bounce back. I’ve watched countless traders blow up exactly like this.
These days I still use stops but make them wider based on actual volatility. ATR stops beat tight ones that get knocked out by regular market movement.
Why not just size down instead of ditching stops? Same dollar risk, smaller positions.
Pro money managers never trade without stops - there’s a good reason for that. Your account can handle tons of small losses but won’t survive one massive hit. The problem isn’t tight stops getting triggered. It’s placing them wrong. Base your stops on market structure, not random percentages. Support and resistance levels beat arbitrary pip distances every time. Think stops are screwing you over? Try this: keep the stop but cut your position size in half. Same risk protection, less stress watching big positions work against you.
Trading without stops can be effective if you have a strong plan and the funds to handle potential losses.
In my experience, I sometimes avoid stops during swing trades in familiar markets, but I keep a close eye on the price movements. You still need clear exit rules for when to exit a trade.
The challenge is making quick decisions when your original strategy starts to fail since you lack that built-in safety net.
Only if you can handle big drawdowns and watch the screen constantly. Too risky for most people.
I tried no-stop trading early on with tiny positions I could afford to blow up completely.
The real problem isn’t losing money - it’s how it screws with your head. You start trading on emotions instead of sticking to your plan.
These days I use mental stops instead of hard stops on setups where I know volatility will shake me out too early.
Only works if you trade tiny positions and bail fast.
Some markets respect stops better than others. Forex can be brutal with spikes.