Set stop loss or not

[Jenny]

I haved run optimize on a few strategys, the result are: do not set stop loss or set a big ammount, in a long run, it can get a bigger profit. Does that mean in the alive trade, don't set a stop, if it get trap, just let it float until out of the trap. Is that strange?
Anybody have the same felling?
Thanks

[Pete S]

It's all determined by your risk tolerance. Needless to say, the next n months are not going to trade like the previous n months you backtested over. I personally am not comfortable running without reasonably tight stops, even when that means my backtesting results aren't as high as they could be, and I see myself get stopped out of trades which would have been successful if I had let them run.

I'll optimize using a very wide spectrum just to see what the results are, but when I select my parameters for my production runs I restrict my parameters to more narrow ranges that I feel comfortable with.

[Jenny]

Yes, you are right. There are a lot differnet between backtest and alive trade.
Thanks