I agree . Reverse your long set-ups and trade the short side. Rather then wait for a stock to come back/averaging down/etc. you'll find that you take losses quicker when the trade goes against you. Toughest thing to do is sell and admit you're wrong. Way easier when you're trading short.
not true, short only is not the answer. You must be kidding. You will get squeezed out lot more often on shorts than longs, especially with tight stops. try again.
Psychologically, for myself anyhow, I found it way easier to exit a trade moving against me when I was short. When I was long I had the tendancy to give it a little more room Hoping it would go back up. The problem seems to be not taking a loss. By trading the short side you learn to take losses quickly. Worked for me. I can now take a loss on my stop, short or long and I think its made me a better trader. I've been wrong before. Just ask my wife.
You're not going to be profitable on 100% of your trades. That's what you seem to suggest to me. When you have a loser you want to average down and/or "hope" it'll move back up to being profitable. You might think about having BOTH pre-defined entry AND exit points prior to entering a trade. And the exit points should be both profitable exit price and the price you'll exit if it's a loser. Take a look at pro athletes. A quarterback doesn't hit 100% of his passes. A basketball player doesn't hit 100% of his shots. A baseball player doesn't hit 1.000. A quarterback might complete 60% of his passes. A basketball player might hit 55% of his shots. Baseball is even lower, hitting .350 is phenominal. And any trader has to set their expectations based on their goals, whether scalping or trading longer time frames.
Well i try to scalp for 0.10 cents to 0.15 cents in stock like qqqq msft intc csco dell spy In stock like aapl klac ebay amzn yhoo i try to look like 0.15 to 0.25 At these rates what kind od a stop loss should i expect Advice is greatly appreciated
Unless you become an exceptional trader a large percentage of your trades will be losers so you better get used to it. What size are your average wins? Your average losses need to be about half that size or smaller..
You are a complete amateur trading stocks that are very closely followed by top traders. You need to find new, slower stocks plain and simple. You need to learn to TRADE first before trying to compete against the big boys. Look for naz stocks that do btw 200K-800K shares a day and learn from there. It IS much more boring but you will benefit greatly. You need to take yourself away from those action stocks. Learning on the slower naz stocks will help you train your eyes as to what moves stocks up and down. Once you gain that knowledge and consistency, then move to the more active/heavily traded issues.
I think most have had this problem. For me the problem with taking losses had to do with wanting the money now and not some other time, the need to make money at the moment, so I refused to book the loss. I just needed to realize I had to think in terms of weekly or monthly returns and stop being so anxious to grow the account immediately. Also going back after a few months and seeing the results if I had taken the losses when I was supposed to was pretty eye opening. Hope that helps.