I miss the days when I could get that messed up on a Friday night.Quote from SnakeEYE:
why use stops if the market is up?take an instrument that trending,go long only,if drawn down - wait until be point.you`ll never lose that way.Ever!
p.s. take dec.gold futs for e.g. trade it long only,if drawn down - take oct.gold futs and trade it,if drawn donw - take jan12.gold futs and trade it.....and so on until you puke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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or until margin call
:eek: :eek: :eek:
Quote from tradingcards:
Was wondering if the saying, ânever let a winner turn into a loser 1.) applies to beginners, 2.) If it applies to swing trades, 3.) how much time do you give a trade before you enforce that rule? For swing trades, for example, do you give a trade 1 day? What if it only moves up a fraction?
Btw, what I mean by "if it applies to beginners" was that I know beginners should use hard stops (predetermined), but at what point do you lock in a gain and not let it turn into a loser. I would imagine this is sound money management even for a beginner.
Any help is greatly appreciated
Well Lucias, I think you would probably agree, that if your original strategy calls for something like risk to reward of 1:3 and you start moving stops around, that's going to give you something less than 1:3 over time.Quote from Lucias:
As you can see, the common wisdom isn't well enough defined to be useful. It can't be true because it isn't defined accurately enough for it to be possible to be true!
There is really no single or right answer to your question. However, most trading methods that work will have losers that were once in profit to sometimes even a worthwhile degree.
Dr. Steenbarger suggested to take cut a trade after 50% of the profits were given back. In general, you should cut a trade when the future risk outweighs the future gains.
You need to consider several factors including:
Probability of future loss & Magnitude of loss
Probability of future gain and Magnitude of gain
It is not enough to think about one in isolation. I'm not sure why you believe that beginners should use hard stops and I wouldn't assume that to be true, at all.
Quote from Lucias:
As you can see, the common wisdom isn't well enough defined to be useful. It can't be true because it isn't defined accurately enough for it to be possible to be true!
This comment is based upon your perception, derived from a limiting and or useless belief. Does it need to be defined accurately to be useful? What is your application on the definition of accurate.? It could be very broad based while still within the confines of the term.
There is really no single or right answer to your question. However, most trading methods that work will have losers that were once in profit to sometimes even a worthwhile degree.
Being there is no single or right answer to the question, are the reponses then various while being incorrect? Applicable and relative to the timeframe selected, that are based upon criteria defined by personal psychological biases, and beliefs. There are however guidelines, and basic principles that can help one define more specific techniques that assist in accomplishing consistent profitable behavior.
Dr. Steenbarger suggested to take cut a trade after 50% of the profits were given back. In general, you should cut a trade when the future risk outweighs the future gain.
You don't know what the future outcome is with certainty, only probability. That knowledge wouldn't be available unless one has really done, or found the research and development to gather a data sample that provides a semblance of reliability.
Look into the interview with Eckhardt in Market Wizards concerning the question that is the foundation of this discussion.
Quote from oldtime:
You were already even before you put the trade on, so trading to get there doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
I don't know if you'll make money, but eliminating scratch trades (which when you think about it is the easiest thing anybody can do) should improve your results.