A "mental stop" so "you can sleep"? This makes absolutely no sense at all. How does this lend to sleeping well? There's no stop set. Maintaining "journal integrity"? ...sometimes I wonder B1.
Quick reminder to all: It's not necessary to post trades here, but if you do, they need to contain a real time stop posted at the same time, since we have no way of knowing what an account size is. This is the way to keep it real and could aid in making someone a better trader as well. Averaging is ok for investing when the money is going to be available at some later point to average in. This however is a trading journal and stops must be posted. Because as we all know, leverage is being used and averaging in is indeed only being used by people who end up losing money. --- Use my posting as an example for proper posting. I copy the time stamps etc. and it's easy to see what my position is at any one time. --I end up disregarding the majority of the other trades posted as they don't contain stops etc.--I read them, but disregard the ones that are just attempts to be right.--I'd rather be wrong a lot for small loss and be right hardly ever, but for a nice gain. -@Buy1Sell2 https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/es-journal-archive-2011.233957/page-928#post-3259314
@Buy1Sell2, "Hi Ernest, please short ESM9 here at 2945!" Ernest, "Filled. Would you like to place a SL?" @Buy1Sell2, "Good idea! Place it outside the range" Ernest, "What range?" @Buy1Sell2, "The range of the AH session. Toodles!"
Just a reminder that from last Thursday's buy in the 2914's, two of the three targets then posted have since traded ... two down, one to go. FWIW the first is generally a given, the second is icing on the cake, the third indicates melt up (or melt down in the case of short signals). I know some think 3200 seems beyond reach and reason, but that target was available since last September's high (though it did not become viable until the decline began in earnest into the 2018 lows). So if you think 3200 seems unreasonable here at 2950's, imagine how much more implausible it would have seemed in December in the 2350's ... and yet Big Money started buying there and Big Money keeps right on buying.