Hi Josh

Maybe that worked for you this time, but will it work over a large sample of trades? The difficult thing is the market will reward both good and bad decisions impartially. Bad decisions are often reinforced when they're rewarded and don't look wrong at the time.

It will take a sample of say 50 trades to work out whether "no more stops, no more targets" is working for you.

With so much discretion it will be emotionally harder because you will have full responsibility for your actions and not be able to compare your actions against system rules. Correct actions will provide profits and losses, bad the same. Each trade is a unique experience so it's likely to become confusing about what to do and how to improve.

Good luck and I wish you all the best with it.

Cheers Rach

I don't use stops either. I have certain levels or indicators that tell me when to get out, and that's when I do. But I don't use resting stop orders.

generally, no hard stops here either. Mostly because I trade off 1 or 5 minute charts and getting "dinged" out by some algo running the obvious ranges followed by an immediate reversal has stopped me out one too many times. My exit or "stop" starts when I begin to see the structure of the price action change. Something that is more than one exact price value.

Most of the times I actually have hard stops in the market is when I am in super scalp mode and my trade is to risk X to make Y with no exceptions-- pure EV as apposed to building a position around a trade thesis and overall market direction.

I always have a stop, but most would consider this a large stop. I place my stop where it means the market is potentially shifting. It is also my fire exit (unexpected event).
When the market tells me I am wrong on a specific trade, I usually exit on a pull back. As I play only one trend (the ongoing trend of the market), the probability to recover my price is in my favor.
Note this does mean I am waiting for a pull back. I have intermediary techniques to exit much faster and not wait like a duck in a pond.

I always have a target. The target depends on market conditions. Is the market directional or not, fast or slow, etc.