Rookie mistake is not to use them. Would love to hear how you can trade without stops and surviving. I did test opening opposite trades. Layering kills you as well.
I was just kidding, although would be good to find a way to avoid using them. Something like running a shorter term strategy within a context of longer term strategy, so you just shift the loser from one to the other. I am not doing that, just a thought.
You can trade without stops if you hedge. Sometimes I'll go long a stock and buy a put. And our friend @globalarbtrader trades without stops as well, if one is to believe his book and if I read properly, which is not guaranteed to be true.
RedDuke, What do you mean "non of it matters, if a trader does not use model that has positive expectancy" Are you saying trader should focus on finding positive expectancy, then focus on all the discipline, confidence, psychology stuff? Should the trader focus on trading skills first?
Thanks for sharing, In my opinion, I do not see the logical reason to read Mark Douglas book if I (or a trader) have no trading skills or know how to read a chart to develop a testing trading strategy or ideas.
I wanted to share this great analogy (imo) that Dr. Brett Steenbarger used in one podcast when asked same question: Imagine you are a surgeon and your patients keep dying on the table and after the surgery you say - Damn, something is off - I need to work on my psychology.