Good evening Daywalker...cant speak for the other traders and not saying I encourage this but I personally do not use stop loss orders.In my early experience with FOREX I found that all the hotshots,gurus and websites preach that the use of stops is a given so I used them.Everytime I placed a good trade with no stops I made money...every time I placed a good trade WITH stops..I lost money. Tight stops help to cut losses but in my experience they take you out of the trade at a loss over and over.Loose stops on the other hand are dangerous IMO because they help to cut large losses but the fact that they execute might tell you that you were simply on the wrong side of the trade so thats really no help either. I do not personally see the humor in stops...take this AM for example...When non farm payroll data was released ...stops would probably not help...the market moves too fast in those conditions.Let me explain...A stop loss order guarantees that your trade is closed at the limit price you set..right?..WRONG!..an SL order is a limit order til its triggered...at that point a stop loss order simply becomes a MARKET order!...so you then are left with first in first out situation on your order and you might get execution on the trade with a much greater loss than the "guaranteed" stop loss price.These orders are IMO best used to try and protect your capital under a falling knife situation as we saw this AM..BUT it may take you out of the trade with a lot worse loss than you anticipated. My method of trading is that if I cannot babysit the trade..I do not place the trade!There is a lot more to discuss on this matter but I will stop here except for one note...EUR/JPY tends to have a lot of movement compared to EUR/USD so tight stops with it can be hazardous to your accounts health...not as wild as the beast(GBP/JPY)..but usually a lot more swing than its sister..EUR/USD.Keep these things in mind also if you set stops on a pair.
I'm like SG mostly in that I don't use stops even if I place a trade and leave it without watching it. My mental stop depends on the size of the trade and my timeframe. If I'm in pretty good I may have a 20~30 pip in mind. If it's really light I might have 100 pips. You mentioned 5 pips and I'd just say that unless you are very, very good, it's not realistic for most pairs. Most everything comes around in time and losing 5 pips time and time again can take your money just as easy as letting a loser go to long. JMO.
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