emg is too persistent in his utter belief which led one to believe that once upon a time, emg has a story to tell about not placing a stop....! too bad, emg is closing out his thread and no one will ever hear the true story behind his trading experiences of not placing a stop. good luck and better trading for you, emg, without a stop!
I would love to know how EMG defines a loss level for a trade and then takes a loss on that trade. What are his criteria. When EMG enters a trade, does he have defined risk at that time of entry ? Or is his puke point a living, variable dynamic ? Given the overwhelming and abundant rhetoric from EMG all over this website about stops, I believe this is a legitimate question that he must now legitimately answer. For me personally, I takes losses all the time. About one third of my trades are stinkers. I place my stop-loss levels ( and the profit targets for that matter ) at my time of trade entry - and for about half of the losses I take, the model takes me out on condition changes before the stop-loss level is reached.
While I don't think EMG's is the only - or even best - way to trade, I think he has a point regarding stops and leverage. And an uncanny ability to pick levels. It also depends on the instrument you choose: index futures seem the best to use a strategy (averaging down) that relies on backfilling.
EMG, I have, since you started this thread, thought a great deal about your trading approach. Originally I thought you were just an inexperienced trader. I have changed my mind. I would say that in my experience you can make a lot of money trading the way you do with a sufficiently large amount of capital. Particularly knowing where to add to your position is critical and requires skill and experience, and especially you must be skillful at recognizing key levels in the market. Nevertheless, I think the likelihood is great that you will eventually suffer a catastrophic loss, assuming you continue to trade this way. Please report back in ten years, and let us know what happens. I use stops, and I will also occasionally average into positions as well. My stops don't get hit too often but I will exit a trade before my stop is hit as soon as it appears inevitable that it will be hit if I stay in the trade. I think every good trader develops almost a sixth sense of where stops will be congregated and how much the market is likely to move when those stops are taken out, and uses this knowledge to great advantage. Good trading to you.
You ask for it, you get it. don't chicken out. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=226344&perpage=6&pagenumber=6
Stops are almost the only ordertype I use. For getting into positions and getting out of them (with a loss or with a profit). And I'm profitable since many years already.
sound like a kid. anyway, study math in school. Math is the key to become a successful trader. And be sure to maintain your GPA above 3.5.
Here is an interesting article on HFT: computerised algorithms make markets more volatile and causes long-term investors to lose out to faster traders. http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/telecommunications/europe-and-us-warn-of-possible-hft-clampdown Placing stop loss orders are for loser. Do u really want HFT to blow u away?