How much do you risk?

How much are you willing to lose if the trade doesn't work?

 

Usually, 4 points on the SPOOs... sometimes up to 8, depending upon the charts.

 

I think the amount to which we limit our risk has a lot do with our "psychological comfort level". The question that remains is: can that amount be standardized?

 

CPO... is that like in Commodity Pool Operator, or are you related to the droid in Star Wars?

 

I'm willing to risk about 20% of my account on any one day. I've had a few days where I took such a large hit. I've had quite a few more days where I made many times more than that. By changing my leverage %, I can change my risk pretty easilly. Lately, I have been risking much less per trade. I'm tired of the large account swings, but I still on occassion do risk that much. I also have 1 position on that is 40% of my equity currently, while another is about 25% of my equity. I am not in the slightest bit concerned with either of them. When they go up a few times over, they'll be much more of my equity I guess. That still won't bother me much. If you're right about something, not taking a large position is risking the loss of opportunity costs.

 

I guess being related to the droid would imply mechanical trading. That's not the case though.

 

What this poll, and this thread so far, fails to recognize is that a stock / futures / whatever, can gap well past (with or without a halt), even on an intraday basis. So in theory a trader may think that they are risking x% of their account, when in fact they are risking much more.

 

Hmmm. I almost always have 100% of my equity in just one or two securities. In most cases it's just one. AND, the strategy is to hold them overnight... AND, those are the securities that are prone to high volatility . From what you said it looks like I'm in the most risk-taking tail of the traders' distribution. Didn't realize that...

 

Looks like you are. Maybe we should share notes. Mine don't do much of anything though and both are long term investments. I'd be astonished if either gapped down more than a dime on any day.

 

Most of mine do gap up about 1-2%. Some much higher, a few (alas) open lower anywhere from 1 to 5 %. I did have a couple of 10% downs though... But so far everything seems to be by the plan. Given the circumstances under which I enter the longs, it's almost a guarantee they'll move big next day. Most do go in the direction the strategy predicts. I'm actually thinking of switching to options instead. Either just calls or straddles. Not sure about the transactions costs there though, so I'm still looking into it.