A bit more about Taking a Loss mouse Date: 16/12/15 Post #:...

A bit more about Taking a Loss​

mouse
Date: 16/12/15
Post #: 16623057

I thought I would put up a post on selling at loss.

Before you read please understand that this is from my point of view and experiences and may not be for you, also i am a trader and don't really invest.

One of first stocks that i had bought was PSY, I was an amateur and didn't understand things like MC, manipulation, how CR can affect a stock and different brokers can do different things to a stock.

I had put 10k on PSY at 8c and watched it go to 16c, I was loving life and thought yeaaa i pic winners and thought i would hold off to a contract was announced. What happened after that was PSY went from 16c to 5.5c I ended up selling out at 7c. A few days later it started its climb and went up to 15c, i had bought back in at 7c but this time i sold out at 14c and here is why i didn't hold out for that contract the second time.

There has been more than a few stocks that the same situation happened but with no bounce and i did my balZz.

I quickly learned in those few months that stocks don't go up in a straight line and that it is not my job to figure out why the manipulation is happening, also that if i was going to do this full time then i need to snap out of making a million dollars on one stock and concentrate on just making an income every week.

The feeling of when i sell out of a stock that is going down is relief, freedom and I'm left with the mental capacity to enjoy the rest of the day. The feeling of when I'm stuck in a stock that owes me 10k + even though iv never been there is jail till a bounce comes if ever.

These day's my losses are at an average of 2k a stock but for the ones i get right pay's for my losses and some, If i like a stock and think it has potential i will free carry but if the milk turns sour i ant the kind of pussy to drink it and will sell out.

……..

If I like <X Company> and think the F/A is good and way too early to say this is a good or bad company, so in this situation i will keep an eye on it for volume to turn and then take a position, i will not try to call the bottom as that is way to hard for me to do on any stock and i do not care why it is getting sold down even though i have my theory's.

So in all my strategy is to take smaller losses and wait for when i think it's right to jump back in rather hoping for a bounce that may or may not come. If i calculated the amount of times that i have sold out early then bought back vs watching a stock drop and hoping for a bounce, hands down the early sell wins.

There is a few times i don't sell even though im watching it drop, i see something of value that i think market will re-rate the stock on but i don't want to go into all my secrets.


Freehold
Date: 29/01/16
Time: 17:18:17
Post #: 16898600

I think the Right Time to take losses is ...

1. Price drops to your predetermined exit point. You should have decided a point at which you would exit BEFORE you enter the trade
2. If the fundamental reason for your entry ...no longer exists or materially changes.
3. The $ loss exceeds that which you have specified in "your rules"... IE I will not take a loss Greater that x % of my total capital ie $2000 ...Defo not more that $2500.
4. MArket experiences or sector experiences a major down swing


gamefisherman
Date: 29/01/16
Time: 17:39:13
Post #: 16898828

I look at the whole concept in a slightly different way, but thats just me. Protecting capital is essential if you want have longevity
trading the markets. If you have one bad trade it can effect your own trading psychology (and you might not even notice that change) and it will substantially damage your trading capital.

For me, 90% of the time I will have some type of stop loss in my trading plan for each stock, and that stop will be entered when I buy into a stock. So in essence, the way I look at an 'unprofitable trade' is that is it purely a cost of doing business. I leave no real margin for error. It is just a mechanical part of the way that I trade. For example, my stop loss will either be a certain % of the price that I am buying at, or set around a recent high or low of the last couple of trading bars.


Zandaya
Date: 30/01/16
Time: 11:33:24
Post #: 16902806

" When is the right time to take losses"

For what its worth here are my thoughts on the subject-

Emotional attachment to a stock!, never get emotionally attached to a stock and keep holding on because you believe in the story and think its just a matter of time until others wake up and get on board, meanwhile it keeps making a steady descend downwards but because you're so emotionally attached you keep telling yourself it will bounce back from here it must the story is too good for it not too! if others are not buying the story then there is a problem, I for one have been caught up and emotionally attached to a particular stock only to see it retrace to over 50% ! so learning from my mistakes now if there is no stop loss in place and the TA is looking bad and she's going down fast, I don't turn a blind eye anymore I get out and move on to the next one.
Averaging Down- I know some are all for it, I'm way against it! you'll come across many posts on many threads stating time to top up, time to average down, these prices are at bargain levels just be very careful because you may start to feel better when your average buy in price starts to come down but within a few days price may have continued to tumble so where you may have been 20% down you now are staring at a 50% + loss.
Better Opportunities- sometimes you may be sitting on a stock and its not going any where or you may be sitting on a small loss you may see a better opportunity to jump on, Ive done it a few times where my money has been tied up in a particular stock and sitting on a small loss, Ive sold and bought a new stock because of TA or something about the company has caught my eye, so whatever loss has been recouped with the new holding. Just remember that losses can be recouped sometimes pretty quickly but the emotional & financial damage holding onto a Dud takes a lot longer to repair!
One last thing once you see certain stocks get pumped multiple times a day usually by the same people on some of the HC threads and you're on one of those stocks! this is your number 1 T/A signal to get out while you can even if you're sitting on a loss,


Techmeister
Date: 27/05/16
Time: 19:21:41
Post #: 17888416

First you need to classify what kind of loss you have...

• is it a major retrace after some excessive exuberance - and you bought in at a high price?
• is it the mob moving on to the next shiny thing - leaving no buyers and a dwindling price?
• is it a major correction due to market realising the stock is not what it was cracked up to be?
• is it the market losing faith in mgt?
• is it a bear market for the sector?
• is it the market not really grasping the business and therefore undervaluing the stock?

each of these could result in a different course of action - as to whether to cut losses or hang in


Eklavya
Date: 27/05/16
Time: 19:30:54
Post #: 17888476

………….After so many losses I have set up avery simple criteria i.e. I just ask myself If I wasn’t an existing shareholder, would I buy it at current price, if the answer is YES I would keep it and if the answer is NO I would simply sell it no matter how big the loss is. I know this may not be the best criteria but I think its working for me better!


webbj
Date: 28/05/16
Time: 00:07:46
Post #: 17889808

Like many when starting out - or perhaps its just me - I made most of the common newby mistakes. My biggest loosing position and learnings this year so far since I actively started trading.

My worst three trades (both closed and still holding) are YNB, SGH and CSS. The loss on these three stocks for me constitutes around 15% of my portfolio value.

YNB I bought in without considering the liquidity and entry price properly. It seemed like an amazing thing I loaded up at above 10cents. Its now less than half that, I chased it down a few times but stopped! Still holding the position because there is simply no buying support for it and whilst the original fundamentals are no much changed - in hindsight I should have sold out and re-entered. Currently still holding but down 60%.

Learnings:

• Liquidity is important. You can spot the best deal in the market, but if no-one wants to buy it from you later for a better price. There is no way to make money from it (unless you can but up all the shares and liquidate the company!)
• Capital Raisings at lower prices are a killer. The lower the liquidity, the lower the depth, the steeper the discount when cash runs out.

SGH Like so many I tried to pick the bottom, starting at $5, then $3 then $2. In the end I sold the lot for just under $1. Loss of something like 80% of my cost base.

Learnings:

• Don't try and pick the bottom. Wait for signs of reversal.
• Unless you are trading technically (and even that's dangerous when the FA in a company like SGH was so insane) dont ever try to value a stock based on what it previously traded for.

For me SGH and YNB were great experiences. It still not nice and I lost significant cash but needed to do it myself to never do it again! Having read all the guides, seen all the posts, I succumbed to thinking I knew better and still tried to beat the market when in hindsight there was no signs that things were going to turn around.

CSS Again, trying to pick the bottom and a reversal without any fundamental or technical indicator. My entry was just based on peer valuation and previous trading price - whilst it was still steadily in a down-trend. I took a much larger position for such a speculative play than I should have. Still has a good story I think, still very risky.. I was foolish with my entry price and should have watched further and taken a much smaller position. My original investment thesis on CSS hasn't changed but realising I was way overweight.. after chasing it down and increasing my position, more recently I have sold down approx 60% at a significant loss. Am quite comfortable with my holding now based on the "if you didn't already hold would you buy" premise.. yes, I would, just no where near as many of them as I originally did.

Learnings:

• Why try and pick the bottom of a downtrend? If a stock has fallen 50% its quite likely to fall another 50%. It then it needs to rise 200% to get back to the original price, lots of traders and other poor suckers will be bailing out on the way as it 'might' slowly grind back up.
• Scaling in or pilot buys mean you can get some exposure, skin in the game and follow the stock more closely. If it plummets down, the decision to cut your losses will be easier or if you think that's a better entry point you can load up more and make up your losses with a larger position when it does turn around.

Many of my smaller positions I find it much easier to sell down if they don't go to plan, for the types of STT plays I am increasingly doing, I keep buying as it goes down without much worries. My parcel sizes and entry points are now much more reflective of the risk, liquidity and overall portfolio size.

Overall I deal with loosing positions better mainly because I have improved the way I enter. No hard and fast rules, will depend on the stock, sector and size. Equally my topup's as it falls further will depend on those same parameters.

Can't speak for others but I really learn best after making the mistakes myself! Luckily so far a few excellent trades have outweighed the few epic losses/mistakes where I should have bailed earlier.


just1n6149
Date: 28/05/16
Time: 04:42:04
Post #: 17890044

The best lessons have been learnt on my biggest losses - even though only a relatively small portfolio. I've lost over 30% of my portfolio in 1 week, blindly following tips on HC. Always DYOR - everyone puts this in as a disclaimer to every post - yet so many don't take notice. You always see those complaining on the stock thread as to why 'the next 10 bagger' didn't go up like it should have. These 30% losses, were made back within a couple of weeks thanks to STT - and I've never posted anywhere else since.

Lesson 1:
I bought into CTP on a downtrend paid something like 13c a share. I truly believed this was the 'bottom' at the time. Sure enough this went south to 9c. I guess the lesson I learned here is don't ignore the overall trend. You'll never pick the bottom of a stock. It is much 'safer' to enter a stock when the downward trend finishes and an uptrend emerges.

Lesson 2:
Building on from this CTP trade, I should have sold earlier. I got caught up in minimising my losses by a few pips, which in hindsight cost me much more chasing those losses each day. When it traded at 11c, I tried to sell at 11.5. Then it traded at 10, and I wanted 10.5 etc. I ended up getting out at 9.8c. If you know you should be out of a stock, get the hell out. Why are you even stuffing around with a couple of pips? In hindsight it'll cost way more.

Lesson 3:
The first stock I ever bought - A2M. Bought heavily into the hype, and being one of my first stocks was greatly attached to it. The lesson learned.... don't fight the market or invest your emotions into your position - it makes it that much harder to get out when you should. I bought in at $1.85 and it went to $2.10 or so on news. I never sold, because I was soooo ridiculously emotional about my 'first stock' and how it was going to make me "rich." I was believing everything on HC (another lesson here... don't believe anything on HC unless it comes from STT and you've done your own research to the claims made). This continued to trade in the $1.60-$1.70 range for MONTHS and I should've cut my losses so much earlier and had that money work for me in other stocks. I ended up selling 3-4 months later, at the same loss I would've made if I sold from day 1 - end of the day if I wasn't so damn attached I wouldn't have ignored the TA/FA, and drowned myself in HC gossip.


kmac
Date: 28/05/16
Time: 10:25:33
Post #: 17890727

just couldn't resist posting on this topic! Not going to list specifics, there's lots for me over the years, but its true you can't be told, you have to learn from your own mistakes. Here's what I've learned, sorry if a bit general SL but if I listed my big losses over the years, it'd be pages long!

1. You can't avoid making mistakes if you trade, just make them small and often and heaven forbid - CHASING.

2. Don't HOLD "crap" - unless you are "smart money" or have "inside knowledge". Trade it if you wish, but take your profits and honour your stop loss.

3. Forget about your personal beliefs about a stock if trading. What makes you smarter than all the other traders out there, go with the flow if trading, don't think you can outsmart others. Its an auction.

4. Cutting losses quick keeps you in the game - there's always heaps of opportunities out there. ID whether your trade is DT, ST or LT from the outset. Don't kid yourself that a DT can become LT - its "bottom drawer" if you're left holding the bag.

5. Can assure newcomers that you are never immune from buying occasional duds, just try to make a graceful exit where possible and it is true that the first loss is usually the best one.


Martin Gifford
Date: 28/05/16
Time: 17:30:05
Post #: 17892506

It's horrible seeing people in the stock threads clinging to losing positions. It's because they are clueless about alternatives, and they freeze up due to the surprising turn of events.

If a position turns negative, I close it instantly. This has reversed my fortunes. But similar to the stock thread people, I can freeze when something surprising happens. As a daytrader, it occurs at the ASX morning open with overnight holds. The market depth and the company can look good, so I feel optimistic. Meanwhile, HC posts and ASX announcements are flooding in. Then a sudden influx of sellers appears as the stock is about to open, and I get confused. It's because I have conditioned myself to believe the price will rise or should rise, and I freeze up when there's too much going on. Maybe I need to put up a post-it saying, "ALWAYS SELL IF SELLERS SUDDENLY ARRIVE!" It would be great if you could set platforms to always flash big red warning signs when the price falls with "SELL NOW" buttons. Price alerts and stop losses are poor alternatives.

Two other ideas:

1) Sell because you can usually get back in at a lower price after the avalanche of selling.

2) There's always plenty of fish in the sea, so there's no reason to desperately cling to one stock.


mouse
Date: 28/05/16
Time: 18:11:38
Post #: 17892663

Losses, i hate them but they make up around 50% of my trading so i learned to live with them...

You can't avoid losses but you can implement a decent strategy to minimise them.

I can't put my finger on one as i can't remember but over time i learned to reduce them and still learning , when i first started trading my portfolio went from being $40k up in three months to $30k down on my own cash within 8. I started as a trader and had not intentions of investing but that loss really burnt me so i had to come up with a way to minimise losses as they where always going to be apart trading.

A few rules i stick by:

1. The smaller the MC the smaller the money i put in.

The way i see it as an example, IVX has a MC of $9 mill, my $2k is easy to manage in it and when it goes lower it's only by a few hundred.. The reason i have put my money in there is because I'm betting on a license deal. Now if i have done my homework properly a license deal would see a MC of $100 mill + which would be a 12 bag... Only with a deal i would put in more money or an announcement that is worthy of money.

2. Kicked down stocks are trading stocks & not for investment.

I have a limit of $15k for trading stocks, i don't care what is happening or going on that is my limit, the average being $10k, there is exceptions to this rule but down stocks is not one of them . The reason is if i have to tap out a 10% loss, it's only $1500 and can make it up on the next one very easy but more importantly my head is not done in as opposed to putting in $30k with $3-4 k loss .

I never look at stocks that are kicked down for an investment, they are always a trading stock, if i catch some profit win, i cash out pretty quick, stop loss is always a must on trading stocks.

SGH I'm currently in and even though it's de-risked due to bank signing off and that is the only reason I'm in, there still a lot of work that needs to be announced to market. The bank singing suggests to me that it's worth a sort term hold, if and only if they announce something positive around earnings then i would look at putting more money in... until then it's a trading stock which means i will be in & out when ever.

3. MC is to high

This is has as much importance as anything else.. Need to value stocks accordingly, the market is insane IMO, a stock if hot is way overvalued & if it goes down it does so with great strength. I think the reason for both is due to retailers have a decent holding in hot stocks... They get FOMO, then if sheet hits the fan they are the first to sell out on the smallest spook

A2M has a huge MC but with very little chance to bag from this point with in a year, there no chance i would touch it as investment. What i would do is buy in close to quarterly & sell after to make some coin.

Probably heard me saying i locked in profits with XPE, yea there is a few things that could come out to make the SP appreciate in value but in the 8 of 10 times i have stuck by rule of selling once a MC hits my target i have came out a champion... Happy to be wrong on few stocks.

Besides, if the right announcements came that would add value, i'm normally one of the first in.

4. Stop loss is important on every stock, it's a must & there is no arguing about it.

5. No FOMO ( fear of missing out ).

Stock runs on a good announcement or just runs.. Why wait for it to run to buy ? If you are the type to constantly do this, ( i did that heaps when i first started ) it means you are not your own person yet & to lazy to do your own research which is dangerous. Sp will never just keep going unless the MC is dirt cheap but even then it will have a come back at some stage.

6. Your interested but there is a feeling that the stock can go down... Buy half.

BRN at 20c was one of those stocks, it has a habit of going down after announcements, traders love this as they take full advantage of the volatility, after a wile the excitement wears off and so does the volatility, at that stage you get to see what the market really thinks.. Because i'm very bullish on BRN i chose to get in at 20c with a half buy and wait it out for the rest due to thinking it's got a good chance of going back down. Sometimes when you value a stock and can go under that price but like i said the market is insane so it will sell it down when they are spooked or they have not valued it appropriately , my next buy was months later at 14c bringing my average to 17c and the reasons for buying in the first place is still alive and kicking.

Iv done this type of buying with DT,ST,MT and LT...

Something i've started to notice, it only takes about 5 stocks a year to make a big return, the others are just trades to keep me occupied wile I'm search and/or waiting.

Also i have noticed that people a drawn to stocks that have run strongly, it's like the run that they were not in is suddenly a possibility again with them being in... Not the case unfortunately and being a sheep or a dreamer will kill your cash.

These are my rules that i have had to implement due to having losses , they are not perfect but work more times then not to keep me in the game.

…………………

MC does not have to be a limit, it is a value i have put on stock for it is at that point via meany different methods of research, each announcment can add or detract value ... Something i'm always learning to refine as i get it wrong a lot but i'm 70% sure it's got to do with market over valuing something so it runs that little extra.

……………….

Each stock must be assessed differently, liquid stocks i learned very early on i hate them, SOR years ago did 600% in one day, for a DT i went in at 400% up and sold at loss bringing the SP down with me cos i had a decent parcel & had no idea what i was doing... So now if i want to enter a liquid stock i treat it a small MC stock no matter how big the MC really is, $2-3k max but would be watching it carefully to dump back & must have a catalyst for an out.


952i
Date: 29/05/16
Time: 05:04:30
Post #: 17893941

Cutting losses:
Something I'm quite familiar with, and I think every trader is familiar with.

Describe a time you finally sold out of a losing position
I think I never realised the importance of cutting losses until I hit a few big losses. Before that had my ego severely in the way. My mentality was "I'm right and my research will inevitably be right so I will hold until it becomes a winner"
So one of the biggest losers was NOR. From memory 14c buy, high 5's sell. 60% loss approx, the investment itself was 25% of my entire trading account(Being 20 my living expenses are very low, my trading account = majority of my bank account itself). So pretty much in one trade go wiped out 15% of my account. That there is stupidity and gambling quite simply.

What was going through my head:
- Get rich quick, I want to buy this at 14c have a over weight position so when it becomes the next ZIP I can be filthy rich on one trade.
- I dont need a stoploss, because I'm not wrong
- Using threads for research is good enough
- 30% loss: its okay cause the threads are saying its gonna be okay
All mentalities I feel everyone should drop.

What did you learn from it, what changed in the stock
What changed in the stock? Nothing changed to me, quite simply I chased something moving exponentially. Had very little idea of the FA and I didnt even know what TA was then lol.
Kept making excuses to hold on a loser, looking back it was horrific TA, and FA was huge over valued MC.
Threads was the killer tbh, using threads to "reassure" my loss is okay, using threads for my entry aswell with calls saying "this is going to ____cents". I dont place blame on any ramper, end of the day youre responsible for your decisions. If anything I thank them, NOR to me highlighted everything I should never do on a trade and made me want to learn everything about the market and how I screwed up so bad lol.

What reason or technical indicators cause you to quit a stick you once thought was going to make you money but went the wrong way.
With NOR, technical indicator was seeing portfolio loss of 50%. I think thats quite a safe indicator saying "you're wrong".

Now I buy at zones where I can put a stop to cut losses at 8-10%, 15% if I'm really pushing it but if I do use a 15% stop I decrease my position size significantly if i get stopped it has no chance of putting any kind of dent in the account.
Usually I enter so support is at most 0-10% below my buy price, if support breaks on low volume or in case its a spring I hold on for one extra day (60% of the time the next day ends up lower and I get stopped out at a lower price, so I dont recommend). I think with more experience you can move stops around a little - not for me right now.

We all have em, lets discuss how we manage them now.

….. Risk management one of the most important things in pennys imo. Pennys are high risk high reward, if you can manage the risk you are left with high rewards.

Jesse Livermore has the rule of all stops should be 8-10% in bull markets and 5% in bear markets. All losses should be cut without question.

In the video below Mark Douglas speaks on one of his wealthiest students who has a success rate of about 2% on his trades and is profitable simply by keeping tight stops and letting winners run. We have the top 10 people on STTComp accuracy 30X that, so you can imaging your average trader can become very wealthy just cutting losses quick and letting winners run.

Jon Boorman - "You have to be extraordinarily patient with winning trades, and ruthless with losing trades"

On the contrary I was recently reading an article about keeping stops too tight and "dying in the form of a 1000 cuts". So I guess its upto the individual in the end to decide an appropriate stop loss for themselves. My personal recommendation for newbies keep stops very tight, focus on picking bottoms (yes its difficult but it is possible) or try get as close as you can, enter stocks in uptrend or breaking upwards, be very picky with each trade this will mean you wont get stopped out of too often preventing death by 1000 cuts.
With experience like some of the guys here you know when its appropriate to move stops and know when market is against you temporarily but in the bigger picture youre bet is correct.
Furthermore when you have more profits banked you can afford to lose a bit more money, build your trading account significantly first with profits, then loosen stops.

Some simple rules I follow for myself:
- Dont invest in stocks 1c or under, my min stop would be a 10% and likely be triggered by few weak sellers.
- Dont put a stop any lower than 8-10% very rarely will I do a 15% unless I have an incredible FA insight.
- Dont risk more than 2% of your trading account. So that when I do get stopped out the max I will loose is 2% of my trading account.
- Write down on a piece of paper "at this price I know I'm wrong about this trade" makes your approach to stops very mechanical and not emotional.
- Never add to a losing position
- Be patient and wait for the lowest risk setup. Same rule that applies to this thread "look for quality trades not quantity"

Of course as time goes and I gain experience and bank more profits these rules will loosen a little. Until then I gotta stick by them as I'm at the vulnerable stage of my trading journey.
Eventually I know that "multibagger" stock will come, rather than chasing after the get rich quick scheme let it just happen naturally the more you force it the bigger the loss you will make.
Long ramblings I know lol got a bit carried away but I'm quite into risk management.
Anyways will leave everyone with an interesting picture.


Sector Lead
Date: 29/05/16
Time: 12:16:05
Post #: 17894735

On losses...

I have been sticking to my personal risk strategy of buying small positions (pilots), watchlisting them, tracking closely progress, and only adding on FA and TA news/ indicators.

Every time I've gone into something large, and too fast/ big first buy hasn't generally worked out for me, unless it's a small speccy STT where I might be in and out so fast, I won't even post.
generally, I keep these plays all under $10k.

2015-16: One stock I was caught out on face value being "undervalued" was SBB. The FA looked amazing, right up my investing alley, yup too amazing, and I got this one wrong. Worst stock over last year. No-one believes the FA/Cash pos and also it's a Chinese listed stock with a very large single owner/ founder.
I had to trade my way out of this one to reduce losses (traded several bounces 3c-4c range), but was impossible as downtrend was strong. I still hold 400k at around 4c ave after trading from 5c. I am still down 40% on what's left.

We are always getting constant lessons in the market...but you do get better, and don't think you'll learn most markets until you've had a full cycle and all in between, around 20 yrs imo.

Pilot buy, reassess, only build if it's going right direction on news. add, and continue building. If not stop, and sit.
Has been the best strategy for me for years, and I must learn to stick to it 100%, not just 90%.

Assess your final capital position, then only pilot with 10%, then buy 4-5x on confirmation of your initial reasons to invest, say 20% at a time. Just me, but there are several other experienced on STT that also use this.


forrestfield
Date: 29/05/16
Time: 12:39:54
Post #: 17894801

Losses - you can't avoid them regardless of your strengths, research, strategies, skills and knowledge... however, you can improve yourself from every mistake and establish a strategy which brings more winner as compared to losers... or need to aim 1 winner vs 1 loser... like 50% accuracy... which is close to mine when it comes to STT... however, I aim for some winners where they can generate handsome gains and losers to generate low key losses like 30% etc...

Now when it comes to cutting the losses... I perhaps have a different strategy which is two folded...
1. If i bought a stock which is making losses but nothing has changed like nothing bad has happened but the sp is falling I normally buy more... just like I bought CR8 at 2.4c average and sp fell to 1.8c... I added more as it was offering me better opportunity. ..

2. When I end up holding a dog, I cut the losses as soon as I find another winner... so I don't mind the % of losses I rather take whatever I can get and move to the next better thing... it pays off quite often...

Cheers


nickd
Date: 29/05/16
Time: 17:00:45
Post #: 17895571

@952i has mentioned Mark Douglas a few times now and it is well worth reading his books and watching his video's

I watched his video series at the beginning of the year and it has dramatically changed the way that I trade:

- I now enter trades with a stop and now no longer look at my stop being hit as a loss, but the price paid to see if I was right or wrong about my entry. It really is amazing when you do start to think like this because it becomes so easy to say I was wrong about that one, move on to the next one.

- I now no longer worry about one trade but look at it as part of a series of trades and focus on my win/loss ratio - my losses are limited but winners allowed to run.

- My problem now is exiting winners and not leaving so much on the table.

Here is a excerpt from one of his interviews:

You need to ‘change your thinking’. The goal is to reach a ‘care-free state of mind’. When a pattern presents itself, don’t think. There’s nothing to think about. Take the trade because you have an edge. Then odds, probability and your risk control mechanisms will take care of everything. In the end, the key is to learn more about yourself. The most important lesson though is the importance of viewing every single trade as being part of a series of trades.

The edge he refers to is your TA/FA or the reason you entered the trade.

Cheer