recognizing a loser before a stop out

[nononsense]

Quote from Gordon Gekko:

i really have nothing to add here other than that i see this as probably the single biggest area where my trading could improve greatly.

i'm talking about knowing what a winning trade does, recognizing when it is not doing that and get out...instead of getting out on some far away stop.

this is a huge part of trading and i know it.

Hey Gordon,

I had been torturing my little nononsense brain about how to make random entry work. I would love to move up to ET's Hall of Fame.

Thanks to you, I now clearly see the missing link. Great post!

Be good,

nononsense

 

[neutrino]

Quote from Gordon Gekko:

i'm talking about knowing what a winning trade does, recognizing when it is not doing that and get out...instead of getting out on some far away stop.

You can't tell if a trade will be a winner or a loser in advance.... "You can't tell till you bet" (Livermore)

What you can do is move your "far away stop" closer and protect a part of your paper profit. This is the only thing you can do. You can protect your capital.

The other thing is to refine your edge when you chose your entry and exit points.

Good trading

 

[LongShot]

Quote from Gordon Gekko:

i really have nothing to add here other than that i see this as probably the single biggest area where my trading could improve greatly.

i'm talking about knowing what a winning trade does, recognizing when it is not doing that and get out...instead of getting out on some far away stop.

this is a huge part of trading and i know it.

well, winning trades make $$. they're easy to recognize the rest is an unfortunate illusion :-/

 

[stockerup]

Quote from Gordon Gekko:

i really have nothing to add here other than that i see this as probably the single biggest area where my trading could improve greatly.

i'm talking about knowing what a winning trade does, recognizing when it is not doing that and get out...instead of getting out on some far away stop.

this is a huge part of trading and i know it.

Basically, what I hear you saying with this post is that you don't know what you're doing. Once a stop is set you NEVER move it; the only exception is to attach a trailing stop once you're in the money. If you set the stop in the right place at the beginning of the trade, instead of some arbitrary amount you elude to when you say --"some far away stop"; you have no reason to move it. This is basic stuff GG; maybe you need to go back and read some more.

 

[OldTrader]

When you know why you entered a trade, you'll know when to exit.

For instance, if you buy because it broke out of a consolidation, you would have certain expectations. You might expect it to move in your direction, come back to test the breakout point, move in your direction again past the original stopping point, etc etc. Once you know why you bought, the minute it starts to do something you didn't expect, or NOT do what you did expect, just get out.

OldTrader