"Scaling out" is inferior behavior
- Thread starter Buy1Sell2
- Start date
The two are the same.
B1S2, not that it was intentional, but the problem with your first post is you come off as arrogant implying that your way is the only way to trade. I think this is why got people offended.
if you are not losing then what are you doing ?
We're having a great conversation here about one of the more subtle aspects of good trading (you have to travel a ways to get here) and everyone - especially you Cutten - have shared some very salient points.
Lets keep the knowledge rolling, and can the meaningless insults. They don't have any relevance to the topic being discussed.
Regards,
JJ
No I haven't. You are only thinking in one trade, one time frame at a time. For others who just trade markets, not time frames, adjusting your targets/size as market elements evolve is critical. You gave the statement that scaling is inferior in any time frame -- I repsonded that for those of us who trade across multiple time frames, scaling is an important part of controlling risk. I understand your point, and it is rather simplistic, as you have stated before. But if you want to be a bit more ambitious in the markets you trade, you should be able to step up to a more fluid way of thinking.
You don't scale because, given your parameters and length of projected holding time, it would be disadvantageous on all angles; I am not in disagreement here. Just don't project this limitation on others, who have no problem putting up larger size when a tight stop allows, and then gradually easing down as a proper stop point gets further and further away, or if a shorter-time frame target has been achieved. See, the difference here is, some don't think in terms of where their entries are, because that has no bearing on what the market will do in the future. Instead, some are always thinking about where the risk on the position is now -- e.g. on a daily time frame, they are always long/short from the current day's open -- their entry in the past has no bearing on their thinking ("I have 50 ticks open profit so I sit through a drawdown" etc). So risk can always increase, even in a "winning" position, because some don't consider any difference between open or closed profits. This is about the last of what I have to say on this topic, so if you continue to feel I've missed the whole point, well it's moot in any case.
Hey Vol,
Nice to see you.
Ask the New York Knicks whether they've been Playing not to Lose or Playing to Win. Nah, just take a look at their record.
They are completely different mindsets (and of course, you can only have the latter when you know that you have a system that works).
Best,
JJ
I'm always playing to win, that is why I scale out instead of giving the winner a chance of turning into a loser by letting greed tell me to hold on to the full position and see if it will run more.
Trading is like playing poker, you have to raise the stakes when the oddsare in your favor, watch on tv, they do not bet the same amount over and over and end up winning.