Where Do You Place Your Stop‑Losses?
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Hey everyone, quick question!
I’m confused about stop placement, sometimes I get stopped out by random wicks.
- Do you place stops just below the last swing low, or use ATR multiples?
- Any tips on avoiding those fake-outs?
- Share a recent trade where your stop saved or screwed you
For example I used to set stops 1 % below entry, but that got blown out on choppy 5 m BTC candles. Thoughts?
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Here’s my approach
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- Draw trendlines to find swing lows or highs
- Place stop a few ticks beyond that swing point, usually 1–3 % buffer
- Avoid stops right at high‑volume nodes, those areas reject price often
It’s saved me from a couple of nasty flushes where wicks poked through but got rejected immediately.
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@seeker88 said in Where Do You Place Your Stop‑Losses?:
Hey everyone, quick question!
I’m confused about stop placement, sometimes I get stopped out by random wicks.
- Do you place stops just below the last swing low, or use ATR multiples?
- Any tips on avoiding those fake-outs?
- Share a recent trade where your stop saved or screwed you
For example I used to set stops 1 % below entry, but that got blown out on choppy 5 m BTC candles. Thoughts?
My rule of thumb, I never place a stop closer than 1× ATR on my execution timeframe, and I always cross‑check the 1 h ATR before setting a 5 m stop. Sometimes I use a mental stop only, and manually exit instead of relying on the auto‑fill
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I used to put stops under the last swing low, but got run over by crazy weekend wicks. Now I:
- Mark the weekly support zone on the daily chart
- Use that zone as my “no‑touch” area instead of minor 5 m swings
- On the 1 h chart I set stops just outside the zone boundary, then trail them as price moves in my favor