Are you going to share or do we have to pay for the answer ? How much do you want for it, and does it come with money back guarantee ?
Make sure you are aware of earnings, and if you're up nicely before a company reports, then scale out before the number. You can always hold some if you're well versed in the company's financials. But even with that, sometimes the stock still gaps lower if the number was positive but wasn't "better than expected." Also what the op said, buy options to hedge. Sometimes it's just bad luck and you just have to stomach the draw, hold for a reversal, or take the loss. Look what happened to those who held DNKN recently. The company didn't even report earnings, but instead made an announcement of "weak guidance" for the next quarter, and the stock gapped down big.
I outlined a black swan event in crude here, some discussion followed. http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index...hould-one-use-in-a-single-trade.206664/page-5