In order to be profitable, you have to pick the best possible trades, but you also have to make sure you don't lose everything on those "few" trades that prove to be wrong. That's why you need the stoploss.
The stoploss implies that after all your thinking before starting a trade, when you are so confident that it will be successful and you are right about to make it, you still take the time to ask yourself "Ok, what if I am wrong? How much am I going to lose at the most from this trade if I turn out to be wrong?" And it's a very unnatural thing to do, because you waited all this time for the perfect trade, are positive about it, and you are there asking yourself "how much am I willing to lose on this trade?". Instead of thinking positive, you are being negative, pessimistic. That's why it's so hard to learn the habit of using a stoploss, because it's hard to consider the possibility of being wrong, when you think you are right. You think you are right, because if you didn't think so you would not be making the trade. You are positive about the trade...how can you think of a stoploss when you are about to make a trade?
But it's necessary, because, similarly, for psychological reasons, many of us have a hard time exiting a trade that is showing a loss, and you need a stoploss to do that for you. Why do you think that happens? Once you realize that you are wrong, why is it so hard to exit a trade you entered thinking you were right? Maybe we don't want to admit we are wrong? Why not? Maybe it's too hard on our self-esteem?
The reasoning that goes on for my trades without a stoploss is always this: first I enter a trade, then it shows me a loss of 1%, so I decide to wait, because "why sell if I felt so confident just a minute ago?". Then it shows you a loss of 2%, and you start to realize it might be a mistake, but if you sell now you'll lose 2%. Then it's -3%, and you think that, as soon as it will come back a little, you'll close the trade, but it doesn't, and so on, until the end of the day, when you sell at -20%, and that would still be a stoploss, because I am sure many people even keep a losing trade open for days and months, like unexperienced investors do with their stocks that show them a loss. The only way to avoid this paralysis that happens to you when your loss begins to develop and increase, is to let the stoploss close the trade for you.
What is your experience with the stoploss? Do you all use it, and how? Did you use it from the beginning, or only later realized that you were missing something?
The stoploss implies that after all your thinking before starting a trade, when you are so confident that it will be successful and you are right about to make it, you still take the time to ask yourself "Ok, what if I am wrong? How much am I going to lose at the most from this trade if I turn out to be wrong?" And it's a very unnatural thing to do, because you waited all this time for the perfect trade, are positive about it, and you are there asking yourself "how much am I willing to lose on this trade?". Instead of thinking positive, you are being negative, pessimistic. That's why it's so hard to learn the habit of using a stoploss, because it's hard to consider the possibility of being wrong, when you think you are right. You think you are right, because if you didn't think so you would not be making the trade. You are positive about the trade...how can you think of a stoploss when you are about to make a trade?
But it's necessary, because, similarly, for psychological reasons, many of us have a hard time exiting a trade that is showing a loss, and you need a stoploss to do that for you. Why do you think that happens? Once you realize that you are wrong, why is it so hard to exit a trade you entered thinking you were right? Maybe we don't want to admit we are wrong? Why not? Maybe it's too hard on our self-esteem?
The reasoning that goes on for my trades without a stoploss is always this: first I enter a trade, then it shows me a loss of 1%, so I decide to wait, because "why sell if I felt so confident just a minute ago?". Then it shows you a loss of 2%, and you start to realize it might be a mistake, but if you sell now you'll lose 2%. Then it's -3%, and you think that, as soon as it will come back a little, you'll close the trade, but it doesn't, and so on, until the end of the day, when you sell at -20%, and that would still be a stoploss, because I am sure many people even keep a losing trade open for days and months, like unexperienced investors do with their stocks that show them a loss. The only way to avoid this paralysis that happens to you when your loss begins to develop and increase, is to let the stoploss close the trade for you.
What is your experience with the stoploss? Do you all use it, and how? Did you use it from the beginning, or only later realized that you were missing something?
