EON Kid
"Trading Without Ego" http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=204587
"Trading Without Ego" http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=204587
"Trading Without Ego" http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=204587Quote from Nexen:
Are you suggesting not to add to a winner on pullbacks but only at the broken breakout level via buy stop or short stop ?
If so, considering your realized is deep in the money, how much size are we talking about on the breakout add ?
Takes me by surprise because I was thinking only to add on pullbacks using isolated stops on every add-original piece.
Thanks for your input.
Quote from BCE:
Along with everyone else, I've learned the hard way along the way that adding to a losing position, averaging into it, is almost always a mistake. Period. Your mind says something like, "Oh, this is going against me. But if I buy some more (or sell some more), my break even point will be better and then when it comes back here in a minute I'll make some good money." And that is a possibility. But what seems to happen more often is that the trade continues to go against you and now you're losing even more than you would have if you had maintained only your original position. Then maybe you say, "Shoot! I'll buy (or sell) a few more and average down a little more." But when it goes against you even more you're basically really screwed. And also maybe then the loss is so big you're unwilling to exit hoping it will somehow come back.
Quote from NoDoji:
I know there are counter-trend traders and faders who average down and make a great living trading. I find it too stressful and too dangerous when I have a small trading account and have to produce consistent significant returns off it.
This post pretty much sums it up for those who average down without a position size/risk management plan set in stone and known in advance.
The biggest problem is that MOST of the time you CAN average your way out of trouble, thereby having a 90% or better win rate which satisfies your ego because you're never wrong. This conditions you to believe that price always does a certain thing if you're patient enough.
Dejavu informed us not long ago that mathematically speaking price reverts to the 20-period moving average 100% of the time. I'm pretty sure it does because on every chart I've seen it does indeed.
But it's a MOVING average, and by the time price finally gets back to it, it may have moved very far from where it was when you first began fading what you calculated to be an "extreme", and by then you may be out of bullets and in deep trouble. I believe Dejavu had a 100% win rate for a few months and stopped posting the day we had a massive trend that ran all the way into the close. The moving average was well over a point from the initial signal to begin fading the first extreme move and the pullbacks were shallow. A trader who can't take a small loss because s/he conditioned to believe the 100% win rate will never fail as long as s/he keeps averaging, will suddenly have that day that wipes out weeks, months or years of profits. Read the story of Long Term Capital Management to find out how it can end for brilliant traders who thought they calculated 100% probability in their favor.
Quote from HuggieBear:
went short at 89.30, just for a scalp...down trend is just too nice to pass up. stop at 89.50