I found this quote somewhere and just wanna know people"s opinions: A good trade is more than just an entry: Overall chart context Trade management plan Well-protected stop loss Reasonable target Consistent position size Good exit plan Solid Reward: Risk Ratio
A good trader makes money. None of what you listed is a requirement to make money....so therefore none of what you listed is a requirement of a good trader.
A good trader has a process in place to make money consistently in relation to the risk taken. A good trader has a set of rules to trade by. If you only look at the profitability over a short period of time, anyone can get lucky.
Makes or loses money by design. Has a good sense of what the trade profit target is - not the stop or trade out. What the loss dynamics are - again, not the stop. Pricing to most hedges is fine and not meeting the target is also fine. Making or losing money by design is the goal.
Disagree about your notion of stop/no stop. A proper play is to "evaluate the trade's merits and determine how much you care to risk that your assessment is correct"... that's where you place your stop. There is no "right answer" as to where to stop out. Stops are to protect capital... regardless of whether "things change/or are different than you perceive", or whether "you just plainly screwed up". PROTECT YOUR CAPITAL WITH STOPS... LIVE TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY!* * In my experience, I'd say the market is going to "take a serious run at you and your capital".. probably around 6 times in your career. The kinds of "run" that could damage your portfolio perhaps catastrophically. You really NEED to "dodge those bullets" as best you can. If you always trade with stops, you can prevent such carnage.
Hello Scataphagos, You are correct. I have learned through ALOT of pain, that stop loss are my friend.
IMO, if you have to put a stop then you clearly aren't confident about the direction and should maybe re-consider legging in. Only retail uses stops because they don't have the capital to box it in. Most if not all positions end up in the red because you never get the actual bottom. If price drops I average down. I mean I would not employ this technique for single entities, I would probably get a leap put to protect from bk...but you will never see me place a stop loss on index funds or etfs. If I'm getting in you can be sure it's close to the bottom of the cycle, so why on earth would I want to get stopped out? Instead I use it as an opportunity to load up. If all you guys "stopped" being little bitches then these funds couldn't get the huge liquidity they need to hoard shares and manipulate the stock.
Let us know how a trader will make money, it is easier said than done. making money needs some requirements strategies and discipline.