Don't mess with your stops, especially on weekends

It's a lesson I learned the hard way, and it’s probably not new to many of you. I had a decent short position on $AUDUSD going into a Friday close, felt good about the setup, and my stop was at a logical technical level a bit above. But then, as the weekend approached, that little voice started telling me, "What if there's a gap? You should widen your stop, just to be safe." Classic amateur hour.

So I moved it up, a good 30-40 pips higher. Weekend passes, Monday open, and what do you know? A small gap up, right through my original stop, then it immediately reversed hard. My original stop would have been hit, sure, but for a manageable loss. Because I moved it, I watched the price not only blow past my new, wider stop but then proceed to cascade down, giving back all the profit I'd had on paper. It was a significantly larger loss than it should have been, and the added kicker was the market then went precisely where I thought it would after taking me out. Felt like an absolute clown. Stick to your plan, don't let the 'what ifs' make you second guess your analysis just before the market closes. It rarely works out.