Every beginner course teaches you to use a "tight stop" — 15 pips, 20 pips, keep it small, protect your capital. The data says that advice is statistically insane. We tested stop loss widths from 10 to 200 pips across all 9 forex pairs on FXAbsolute. Here is what actually survives.
| Stop Width | Trades Hit (Stopped) | Survival Rate | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 pips | 92% | 8% | Useless |
| 20 pips | 74% | 26% | Nearly useless |
| 30 pips | 61% | 39% | Very poor |
| 50 pips | 48% | 52% | Marginal |
| 80 pips | 35% | 65% | Decent |
| 100 pips | 28% | 72% | Good |
| 150 pips | 19% | 81% | Strong |
| 200 pips | 12% | 88% | Very strong |
A 20-pip stop gets hit 74% of the time. Three out of every four trades with a 20-pip SL ended in a loss — not because the trade idea was wrong, but because the stop was too tight for normal market noise. You are not being wrong. You are being too tight.
| Pair | Avg Daily Range (pips) | Optimal SL (pips) | Survival Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| GBPJPY | 150-200 | 120 | 78% |
| GBPUSD | 90-130 | 80 | 74% |
| EURJPY | 100-140 | 90 | 76% |
| EURUSD | 60-90 | 60 | 68% |
| USDJPY | 70-100 | 70 | 71% |
| AUDUSD | 50-80 | 50 | 65% |
| USDCAD | 60-90 | 55 | 66% |
| EURGBP | 40-60 | 40 | 62% |
| AUDCAD | 45-65 | 45 | 63% |
The rule of thumb that emerges: your stop loss should be approximately 70-80% of the pair's average daily range. For GBPJPY — the widest mover — that means a 120-pip stop is not "loose," it is correctly sized. A 20-pip stop on GBPJPY is mathematically equivalent to flipping a coin weighted 74% against you.
Backtest stops from 10-200 pips on any pair in FXAbsolute. Bar-by-bar replay with real spreads. See exactly where your stops get hit.
▶ Start Free BacktestingThe uncomfortable truth: wider stops mean smaller position sizes to keep the same dollar risk. Most traders do the opposite — they tighten the stop to take a bigger position. That is backwards. Use the optimal stop width for the pair, then adjust lot size to fit your risk percentage. Use the position size calculator if you need help.
On BTCUSD, a 100-pip stop is equivalent to a 10-pip forex stop — meaningless. BTC's daily range is $500-2000. The optimal BTC stop in our data was $400+ — and even then, survival was only 58%. Crypto volatility demands its own risk framework entirely. Test it yourself on FXAbsolute with real BTC M1 data.
One afternoon on FXAbsolute tells you exactly what stop width survives on your pair. Free. No spreadsheets. No Excel.
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