I swear it has to be hanging on to winners long enough. It is easy to screen, It is easy to study charts patterns It is easy to cut losers short (for me at least...never had a problem with the 1% rule..just program the stop) It is easy to do the studying part...the information is there. i can draw a Trend line...i have patience to stay out of th market when conditions arent good...blah, blah blah. but man...if i dont take 50% of the profits (or less) i could have every single time. This month was the worst by far. I am profitable, i did fine...but i should have cleared over 15% this month so far....i am up about 5%. I covered the day before the 200+ point rally in the dow this week...and missed out on the rest. I am up about 50% this year....but looking back, that should have been over 100% 1. Who else agrees? 2. Who has been able to fix this problem in your trading? I simply view it as a lack of personal discipline.
It's impossible to consistently pick tops and bottoms. I choose a profit target, and let it be filled if the position moves my way. I wait for further confirmation that th e move is not over, and reenter. RoughTrader
s/r is the hardest thing about trading for me. I bought the magazine "active trader" where it discusses s/r zones. I still am having problems with it.
1. i Disagree. Making MONEY is the hardest thing to do in trading, and MOST DON'T. 2. You don't have to let the winners RUN for you to make a LOT of MONEY. Actually, taking the PROFITS a little too fast would enable you to GET BACK in and to TAKE more profits out of just the same move. So, don't let it run. GRAB HOLD and HOLD ON and keep on HOLDING on.
Being consistently profitable isn't bad- trying for the entire move increases risk and could change our success rate. Trying for home runs is risky. I have the same experiences as you with exiting too early but then on other trades the same startegy gets me out just in time. So I am satisfied with consistent , slow and steady gains.
Hindsight is 20-20. When you took profits you didn't know if they'd go higher (for longs) or lower (shorts) and thus you had no way to know if you left money on the table. And one can't go broke taking profits. I typically set my exit when I enter a trade. And if I leave money on the table I don't worry about it. Hitting my target is all I care about.
The mental part is the hardest thing. Every losing trader and every successfl trader can trace their success and failures to mental discipline or lack thereof....
I think the best thing to do in this bear market is to have cash on hand. If the market goes down, no matter how best your stock, big probability is going down with the market. Tony
Well you got 99 percent of the fundies beat. If you can repeat for a decade you will be a multimillionaire.