I’m facing issues with my risk-reward setup — my entries are often delayed, which results in a larger stop loss. This is negatively affecting my trading psychology. Even when a good setup forms, I no longer have the confidence to take the entry.
Welcome to the world of High Frequency Trading.
I get where you’re coming from—the frustration is real. So many ideas seem perfect in theory, but in practice, the reality is very different.
In my opinion, the common concepts of stop loss and risk-reward ratios don’t really work well in the real world of HFT. The market moves so fast and unpredictably that rigid stop-loss levels often get triggered unnecessarily or don’t capture the true risk.
Anyone promoting these ideas as reliable in and HFT environment isn’t truly looking out for the audience’s best interests. Effective risk management nowadays requires more dynamic, adaptive approaches rather than fixed rules that work better in slower, traditional trading environments.
Using a stop loss in a high-frequency trading environment is like bringing a butter knife to a gunfight—totally outmatched and outdated.
hey @iamsahilshinde Take a break, sit back relax until you find something that works for you.
@iamsahilshinde When you feel the rush and anxiety to trade in derivatives, take a break and go back to Swing trading in the cash market. Check Fundamentals and Technicals, enter, patiently hold and then exit if it reaches your target.
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@iamsahilshinde Okay, let me share a stop-loss approach—but first, disclaimer: I’m not SEBI registered, I know nothing, and this is purely for educational purposes.
If your stop losses are too wide, tighten your trade control. How? Shift to time-frames lower than daily but higher than intraday minutes.
Build and backtest your indicators there.
Remember: price is king—follow it religiously. Levels, supports, and resistances? Mostly BS.
Stop-loss placement is a major part of managing market risk. Even the best setups can get wrecked if risk isn’t handled.
Here’s a simple ATR-based stop-loss method:
High market risk perception: ATR × 1.5 = Tight stop loss
Low market risk perception: ATR × 2.5 = Normal stop loss
Multiple losses in a row? Stop trading for a month. Sometimes it’s not you—it’s the market.
This is just a guidance, you’ll have to tweak accordingly to your strategy. This stop loss method is time and battle tested over several years, including COVID and this is optimised for swing trades and equities only.
ATR is probably is the only indicator that is always relevant with the current price action, since it captures both the rate of change and the range of change simultaneously.
Also read, THE BEST LOOSER WINS BY TOM HOUGAARD and TRADING IN THE ZONE BY MARK DOUGLAS. These should help.
Good luck. 
When the mind gets worried while trading, the usual reasons are one or more of the listed ones
- Position size is large relative to capital in account
- Capital in trading account itself is coming from daily maintenance funds or future emergency funds
- The strategy deployed is not objective and the mind has not really made peace with respect to the strategy metrics - accuracy, risk - reward, avg loss, max loss, losing streak, max drawdown etc
- Expectation from the trading is unrealistic – passive income, fixed income, sure shot and guaranteed income, bumper returns, etc.
