Staying with the Trend

I have started the week on a positive note and sit at +$1000.  I have been watching the DMI indicator to confirm that a trend is still in place before buying or selling a pullback.  Though I have done this successfully today, I have a hard time holding on to these trades and have not followed my own advice on where I’ve been placing my limits..  Once I can net about $300-$400 on the trade, I’ve been exiting.  Now this might look good on paper right now but the simple fact is that I don’t do this when a trade is going against me which means that my risk/reward is poor.  I set a stop but never a stop that triggers when I’m only down about $300-$400.  My stops are usually a minimum of about 30 pips so this would net me a loss of $900.  One bad trade and I’m back to square one.

Call this rationalizing but I feel like exiting now with a smaller profit may be sufficient due to the lack of liquidity in the market until either the Asian or European sessions. 

I’ll continue to work on holding on to my positions longer when the pair is going in my direction.  I should learn my lesson after exiting my USD/JPY position last week right before the big 100 pip move down.  I could see using my exit strategy if I was trading the 15, 30, or 60 minute charts but I’m usually trading the 240-minute (my favorite period.)

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