I *MUST* start off by saying that I have an obsession with getting to max lev and letting a trade ride, despite the good sense that aliassmith and MightyOne keep advising me...
I have found it best for me to start off by dividing the currency pairs' Max Lev by 12.
This keeps my Initial Risk relatively low, AND gives me a bit of flexibility converting my leverage into other fractional amounts. As far as my Initial Risk, hard stop is 30 pips, but my entry PA usually allows me to get out earlier if PA isn't super volatile. ((My entry PA gives me an If/Then line that I can respect, WHILE feeling confident that I have given PA "a fair chance to prove itself.))
Depending on the pair, Initial Risk on that 30 pips is between 0.83% - 1.56%
((There are pairs that would allow me lower amounts of Initial Risk, but I prefer trading pairs with higher Max Levs.))
Secondly, I divide my account into a 'Fractional Account‘ of 75% .
I base my Max Lev & lot sizes off of this number, AND my Weekly Loss Limit (5%) off this amount.
•If I lose that 5% dollar amount, I am done trading for the week.
---HOWEVER, since it is based on a 75% 'Fractional Account‘ size, the loss on my REAL ACCOUNT for the week is only 3.75%
Ex:
$1000 REAL ACCOUNT.......75% 'Fractional Account‘ = $750
5% of the $750 'Fractional Account‘ = $37.50
If I lose that $37.50, I am done trading for the week, but my REAL ACCOUNT [[37.50/1000]] has only lost 3.75%
•FURTHERMORE, since I
heavily embrace holding trades off of the Weekly Extreme for the AWESOME pip potential they have, if I get a Fractional Account-based Max Lev trade off of a Weekly Extreme (and still have the long term direction bias for the pair), I do one last add-in to get up to my REAL ACCOUNT's Max Lev...And with this, my new AVG is
automatically on a 75% RET from the current PA!!! (I get easily excited when it comes to things like this
)
This is how I keep track of my fractions of Max Lev, and how I remind myself how much percent risk goes for 30 pips at increasing fraction sizes:
As far as protecting myself from myself, my biggest, new issue was that once I built up to max leverage trading one pair, according to my blueprint, if I lost my SPACE on that accumulation, I would have a BIG problem starting my accumulation from scratch again, and would continue trading at leverages that I had no longer 'earned'.
Pretty much, I just need to ALLOW myself to be more confident in my ability to get into good entries. Trading-wise (live trading) I have ALREADY PROVEN to myself that I can do so regularly enough, but in my own head, I ~still~ talk to myself as if I have a better chance of getting struck by lightning, than getting into another
series of good entries...and b/c of this, instead of calmly starting the accumulation process over again, I cling to the higher leverage like it's a lifesaver donut that I am doomed to sink and drown if I let it float away...