Moving your stop doesn't remove the loss. It makes it bigger.
An example $BTC trade from this week's daily chart:
- Long at the Oct 22 close: 81,416
- Stop under that day's low: 80,940
- Planned risk: 476 points. Call it 1R.
On Oct 23 price dipped to 80,513 and the stop got hit. Most of us know the next thought: "Just a wick, give it room." So the stop moves lower.
What came next:
- Oct 24 low: 79,221. That's 2,195 points under entry, about 4.6R
- At writing BTC sits near 79,800, still about 3.4R underwater
- Six daily candles in a row are red, counting today's
The original stop would have cost 1R and left a clear head for the next setup. The moved stop turned one small, planned loss into a hope trade.
Why we do it: a hit stop feels like being wrong, and a loss hurts more than an equal gain feels good. Moving the stop delays that feeling. It doesn't cancel it.
One rule that helps: set the stop before entry, write it down, and only ever move it in the direction of the trade.
NFA.
When you moved a stop, did it save the trade, or end like this one?
$BTC
An example $BTC trade from this week's daily chart:
- Long at the Oct 22 close: 81,416
- Stop under that day's low: 80,940
- Planned risk: 476 points. Call it 1R.
On Oct 23 price dipped to 80,513 and the stop got hit. Most of us know the next thought: "Just a wick, give it room." So the stop moves lower.
What came next:
- Oct 24 low: 79,221. That's 2,195 points under entry, about 4.6R
- At writing BTC sits near 79,800, still about 3.4R underwater
- Six daily candles in a row are red, counting today's
The original stop would have cost 1R and left a clear head for the next setup. The moved stop turned one small, planned loss into a hope trade.
Why we do it: a hit stop feels like being wrong, and a loss hurts more than an equal gain feels good. Moving the stop delays that feeling. It doesn't cancel it.
One rule that helps: set the stop before entry, write it down, and only ever move it in the direction of the trade.
NFA.
When you moved a stop, did it save the trade, or end like this one?
$BTC
