Ok.. who took my CWTR's at 6.85 in AH?? speak up! Had a live order there I didn't think would fill... See why I don't set targets?
Lets be fair- in hind sight it looks like you should of let it run. You should go back and look at all of your trades and do an analysis how things would look if you let them all run instead of cutting other profits short. I am sure there could of been great examples of how exiting early would of prevented getting stopped out or with a mediocre gain. thx
For sure but you will find those "beneficial" stop outs probably in weak sectors.. ANR wasn't a stop out, just an "I can't believe all that profit" emotional moment at which point the most that should be done is trim the position in half... Thanks for the level comment though.. I do beat myself up A LOT on past trades.
I really like the idea of scaling out of a trade.. emotionally thats your best bet. Take half your position at a fixed profit level and the rest just trail with atleast a stop loss at breakeven.. this will give you the best of both worlds and you will be psychologically in good shape.
I agree with that. The outcome of the system depends a lot on the getting out. So if you only trail the stop, you may get spectacular gains, with continuos drawdowns. If you only use fixed targets you will probably get the more "smooth" results, but you will miss the really big moves. So mixing two ot even three methods of exit, will bring you maybe the best of the exits, offsetting the negatives of each other.
i have to agree with scaling out also, especially for swing trades. i would also look at using targets but not in the way you are currently thinking. instead of using targets as a hard exit, use them as points of reference to review the position and make a decision of whether to exit, or just move the stop in tighter. stick with it and good trading.
Another is to try to trade cleaner stocks as I keep stressing... Key reason why I don't trade many tech stocks... BIDU for example.. It is nearly impossible not to be stopped out of it making the volatility it provides an illusion of profits.. i.e. only a bit of it can be secured.. DRYS is similar.. Ultimate solution is to calm down the nut between the ears but until then... I will try scaling out more and trailing the remainder.