If you count that as a loss simply because it was higher at one point, then ive never had a winning day in my life
Welcome to my life on a daily basis. Instead of trading intraday, and getting the pain over with, I get to watch my account bleed over a series of days just before I get stopped out.
I definitely say 2.2% gain plus a valuable lesson that you have to watch your account like a hawk. Many people won't sell for 2.2% profit because they are still waiting for that 8%. You did a good job by taking that 2.2 % profit. On another subject, For those who have an account with IB, I have suggested to add a chart for account balance so you can see your account value during the day and month,..... to see how it is doing in that period. I have also suggested to monthly rank the IB account holders based on their performance so you can see how you are doing compared to the others. Please take a minute and vote to my suggestions. Search for "hajimow" to find my suggestions. The link for featured polls is: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/poll/poll.php?ib_entity=llc
Many good traders scale out to secure profits, it also makes it easier to ride the winners because profits have been banked and no matter what happens to the current position you will come out ahead. Now, if you are up 8% on say 1000 shares and then you are only 2% on the same number of shares and you did no profitable trades in between, then I would say as a daytrader, you got some pretty bad money management techniques and would actually consider them to be losses.
I would say the 2.2% is a loss. You need to lock in partial profits at your target, and then trail the trade closely. Price does not go in one direction, so you have to expect pullbacks. The question is, has the trend changed, or are people adding on pullbacks? I would make 2x as much money if I let my winners ride longer, but I end up getting shaken out fron choppy market action most the time, so to improve upon making more money I'm scaling out of trades and taking partial profits along the way incase of a drastic reversal that I didn't expect. 5% would be a more likely outcome if partial profits were taken..
Bottom Line it's a profit. At the end of the day, your account is that much richer. Forget about it. Next day trading. Don't get caught up in the would have's, should have's, could have's. Tomorrow is a new day. On the reverse, if you were down 8%, ready to stop out your trades, but you hesitated and rallied back, only down 2%. Did you: a.) lose 2% or b.) gain 6%. Trading is all about the bottom line. It's all in the figures. Next trade.