Yes--that's correct--you still don't get it. Here is exactly what you said: "My limit on my losing trades is 100 per trade. I will not allow it to go more than that. However the areas where the stops should be made make it tough" No it doesn't make it tough! Simply position yourself so your share size compensates for the stop location. The area on the chart wher u r proven wrong is the first thing u should b determining every time u consider a potential setup forming...not after the fact. Something tells me u r merely going in with a static position size each and every trade. Then at some point u r feeling too much heat, and get out... only in hindsight realizing that your exit didn't match the ideal stop location. YOU CAN'T DO THIS!! Know exactly where u r wrong ahead of time & then position size position size position size! Of course share size is reduced...but so what? If u give the trade the proper time to develop AND u have an edge...a big IF... but nonetheless u should compensate by getting the bigger moves. By your own quotes u can validate this: "That's it for today. Got in on limit order for a wedge reversal. It's one of those should I scalp out or should I wait for a big gain trades. Of course it went down huge afterwards. That always happens to me. After losing previous sessions, I thought better to just scalp out. The most difficult decision is often to scalp out or not" "My emotions got in the way. I should just set an entry and stop and go back to bed. It eventually reached my price target but I just couldn't sit through the pullbacks and exited with a loss" "Just got out too quick" "Ultimately, could've waited longer and went on the plus side of the trade."_ "_I just opted to get out of it. It went up.. way up afterwards. I just can't seem to stop taking scalps" "Same old problems again. Not holding on long enough getting psyched out" Sb-- another thing i'm very curious about-- why r u choosing to trade GS ad your primary vehicle? Also--is it safe to assume u r primarily going in each time with 200 shares? Not to throw another wrench into things...but something u should b very concerned about is the % of your capital that u r putting at risk while in the market. This is a huuuge red flag whether u come back & tell me 200 or 100 shares. A single black swan event would devastate your account.
Riffraffpatrol, It's been said before. Generally I do 200 shares. Sometimes more, sometimes less but generally 200 shares. Like I said, I understand that I need to hold longer. You mentioned that I even talked about it. Again, I need some breathing room first. It's barely above 25K now. Again when I have more breathing room, I will let the trades go longer. I don't know but are we beating a dead horse here? I appreciate your advice. I understand what you're saying but again I am waiting until I have more breathing room before doing it. Also I've mentioned that I'm using stops more than ever before to minimize the losses so a black swan event won't do that if the stop is there. As I've mentioned, it's hard to be consistent manually exiting because emotions get in the way. Stops are auto so it takes the emotions out. Some days you have to take scalps in case you get stopped out.
SB your naivete is starting to really show. Stops will NOT protect you from a black swan event! A stop is worthless during a black swan event...UNLESS YOU ARE EXTREMELY LUCKY! If you are doing a stop limit price you won't get filled as price blows right by your stop...and you'll still be in the trade. If you are doing a stop market order, once you get executed your order can be significantly below what you thought would be your fill price. You are playing with fire. Now listen-- position sizing ALLOWS YOU to let your position have time to complete the setup-- IT WON'T VIOLATE YOUR GOAL OF BREATHING ROOM! I am beating this dead horse because you STILL DON'T GET IT!
+40 Not much to report on. Opting to get out with a gain today. A lot of overlap which I'm trying avoid. Bought 116.10 Sold Short 115.57 Bought 116.22 (100)* Sold 116.16 Bought Cover 115.50 Sold 116.35 (100) Sold Short 116.48325 Sold Short 116.39 Bought 116.80 Bought Cover 116.45 Bought Cover 116.36 Sold 116.82 *Only got a partial fill of 100. I opted to cancel the rest because I didn't want to wait.
Just curious in terms of a black swan event, what's the most slippage you've seen for a stop market order for a stock like GS or the SPY? The most I've seen so far is 0.10 and that is usually in the early morning. I don't have as much experience as some others here but I definitely like to see some charting of those events. I just wanted to get an idea of what the chart looks like in case it happens.
SB do u even ruly know what a black swan event is by definition? We are not talking pennies here by any means. By having 80% + of your total capital in a single stock equity u run the risk of easily 25% or more of your capital evaporating...just like that! What are the odds? Remote...but nonetheless very real. For someone who is trying to be conservative towards the end result of keeping your acct above 25k...u at the same time are acting very reckless.
I can see if a small cap stock will go down 25% in a minute but it won't do that with the SPY or GS. Most of those are all computer driven. I've seen random gaps in prices that come out of no where but they always get corrected from what I've seen. That's why if brokers want to dump shares, they do it piecemeal. There's too many computer algorithms connected with those to let some dive too quick too fast without any corrections. It will always correct a little and continue. Most stock market crashes can be seen on the charts. It always starts off small and gains momentum, it doesn't just dive 25% in 1 min. Perhaps for OTC, Pink Sheet, or small caps where they went up too big too fast and crashed and burned but not something like SPY or GS. If you have any examples of a large cap stock tanking 25% of its value in 1 min, I'd definitely like to take a look. I'd just like to see some examples. Pre-opening and after hours trading don't count. Charting is important to me. The news always shows up in the charts first. Brokers with tons of shares would not rather dump them all at once. I like CLM's chart analysis. What do you use to trade? Setup wise? Not asking in going into detail but technique wise? (fibonacci? PA? Indicators?)
Sb--first of all I cant believe u put spy in the same context. Ever hear of an intraday halt re: a material company specific event? Don't think it can happen to GS? You have so much to learn.
SB hold anything overnight and your just asking for it... You should know this. A gap is a gap and no stop will save you from that. You do this a while and you will see things that you never thought you would see and those times will blow you out. You keep talking about breathing room. Just set the stop and target and forget about it. Exit at Market close if nothing gets hit or trail the stop up and let the market take you out.. That way your emotions can't control you and you'll learn the process. Screw the money. Focus on the process of risk management. "your stop is .5 to 1% of equity. want it wider..........? chop you position in half and double the stop distance away. wider still.......? chop position size again and place it 4 times the distance away. " I'm done advising. GL and may the sharks not eat you alive with your food and board money.
I recall halts being done but not until it was well into a trend like some down move. The news hits the charts first. Nothing is impossible. So since SPY is not one stock of a company and being an ETF of many, there won't be an intraday halt? If I went to trade the SPY instead of GS, I would be safe from such an event? Do you have or anyone have a chart of what happens on a day where there is such an event? I know that I do 200 shares most of the time. Ideally I would like to do 150 but they don't allow for odd numbers unless it was a partial fill. I know that I like to get out of the market a lot so I don't have too much emotion for too long. If I go with 100 shares, I know that I will have to be in the market longer. That is something that makes my emotions tougher to handle. It's probably the right thing but my emotions have trouble with it. Emotional control is something I still struggle with.