Well to be really thorough, you should ask the Unicorn at the next desk what his take is on the recent moves lower in the indexes. Perhaps if more Muggles start buying the market would reverse....
true nothing is in stone...it is all on paper. as countless people have suggested to you...the odds are GREATLY stacked against you based on: 1. Overall trend 2. economic forces 3. fundamental analysis 4. technical analysis in addition...I doubt any profitable trader here takes a 4.5% loss on any position. I never take more than 1%. It is what we call "money management"
There is nothing worse than being in denial. This thread was like an intervention, but I can see you are a hopeless case. Keep telling yourself 4.5 loss isn't that bad. When it turns to 9% tell yourself that it can't possibly go down anymore. When it turns to 15% convince yourself it is too late to sell now, and when it turns to 20% convince yourself the market was wrong and you were right.
going back again to money managemnt... It is wise to look for a minimum 3:1 potential win to loss ratio. If you dont know how to look for this...you porbably shouldnt be trading. IF you dont have a good foundation for this ratio...dont enter a trade. If you hit your 1% loss...get out. you have never heard these things before? You REALLY dont know what you are doing i suspect. Again, I emplore you to exit immediately, go to cash...and learn about the markets, most of all money management. It is very, VERY evident that you dont know what you are doing If not, guys like me are going to eat your proverbial lunch. this year (YTD) I am up over 50%...so Yes..I do make over 1%.
I understand that the overwhelming consensus here is too sell all the stock and take the loss now. it is also the overwhelming consensus I have no clue about the markets or trading. it is also the overwhelming consenus that the markets are going to keep going lower. But I dissagree and thats just the way it is going to be. But how can you make lots of money as a position trader if you sell just cause your down several percentage points? I don't get it. Market makers may drop the price to shake out the stop orders so if you set your stop losses at 1% wont you just get stopped out all the time?. Even CANSLIM says sell at 7-8%.
Out of curiocity, how many years have you been able garner these impressive returns? And what are some of the stocks you traded this year? Are you a daytrader or position trader or both?
If you are a position trader you go long when the market is healthy. You do not go long when the market is weak. When I say healthy, I don't mean a minor trend down. The market has a declining 200 day moving average. This is significant. It is not minor. Your probability for success has been greatly reduced. If the market returned to bull status you could repurchase every stock you have and still make a decent profit. You are playing against institutions and day traders. Your only advantage over institutions is you have the ability to get out of a stock quicker than they can, and you can get back in quicker than they can. If you don't use that to your advantage you will never make good returns.
1. You make lots of money as a position trader going in the same direction as the market, and using strict money management. 2. 1% refers to your capial at risk...not the % movement of the stock. If i have a $100k account for axample, i make sure my stops are set to never lose more than $1000. that $1000 loss may be a 3% movement of the stock with a smaller position. ex: I bought 500 OIH at 131, with a stop at 129, 140 target. 500 shares x 2 points =$1000 max loss. after the trade was proven correct, I bought more (calls actually), trailing the stop loss up to never lose more than $1000. I made 5% on the trade with never having risked more than 1% of my capital. make sense? 3. CANSLIM says sell if the stock move 7-8% from THE TOP of the movement in a BULL MARKET. William oneil knows that canslim is not very effective in bear markets. his best selling book has sections in it on identifying trends...and when to be in and our using this methodology...and when to know you are wrong. Your problem with CANSLIM..is you bought at the very tail end of a bull run (actually the begining of a bear)..so you had a lousy entry.