Quote from CoolTraderDude:
When do you take you money to the bank...? When you're up $10, $100, $1000 or $3000...? Unfortunately this game is never over...!
Your own experience and performance statistics should determine that. One should also differentiate between pure discretionary trading and mechanical trading where you are simply executing signals from a system.
Pure discretionary trading can be very tough to sustain for a whole session, so it may be wise to play only the open or at least have a good break or two in between. If you have a trading model that is generating signals for you, it`s a different animal.
One example would be to take the day off if you`re up an abnormal amount of money compared to your average, for example if you found yourself on the right (or wrong) side of an abnormal market move. I was once short, anticipating some selling, when ES dropped like 13 points in minutes. I expected that target by EOD, but not in that manner. Very weird behavior that I did not personally understand, so I took my money to the bank and took the day off, since I did not understand the market structure and risked giving it back.
Another example would be if your market (ES for me), completes it`s average range expansion in a short amount of time during the open. If you traded it and profited, excellent, take the money to the bank. If you missed it, accept that and trade tomorrow instead.
The 50% drawdown rule imposed by TST from a intraday high watermark is not a stupid one. And if market surfer followed it, he would not ended yesterday red. But I`m not pointing fingers, since I`ve done the very same thing more times than I care to remember. That`s why I think the rule makes a lot of sense.
It`s there to protect the trader from himself, not to limit him or punish him.
Quote from Brass:
Hardly.
The least competent traders are the ones who go for the wildest rides. First up the equity curve, and then right back down. The "lucky" part is that they didn't just go straight down to begin with.
I never said otherwise, did I?