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Trading Psychology How do we learn to conquer our fear and greed? Discuss the mental aspects of the game.

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Old 09-26-2006, 06:28 PM   #1

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Stop Loss or Target Price?

When you are Trading, do you use a Stop Loss Limit or do you set a Target Price?

I must admit that I tend to set myself a Target Price, but seem to constantly change this, and more often than not, I end up bailing out on the way down (and hopefully retaining some / all of my profit).

It has to be stop-loss for me.............the fear of losing my capital is often the reason why I sell an investment.
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Old 11-06-2006, 01:52 PM   #2

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Re: Stop Loss or Target Price?

I use both stop loss and profit target. I move my stop incrementally toward my profit target until my target is reached, whichever comes first. This way, I keep my profits but also giving the market room to reach my target.
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Old 11-06-2006, 01:57 PM   #3

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Re: Stop Loss or Target Price?

Quote:
Originally Posted by torero »
I use both stop loss and profit target. I move my stop incrementally toward my profit target until my target is reached, whichever comes first. This way, I keep my profits but also giving the market room to reach my target.
I do pretty much the same.
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Old 11-06-2006, 04:23 PM   #4

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Re: Stop Loss or Target Price?

If you can tell whether you are in a range/slow trend or strong trend you may want to use multiple tactics.

When slow use tight targets and keep stops wide until near target where you might snug them up very tight.

If running hard use no (or extremely optimistic) targets and trail you stop behind retracements until you find some reason to snug the stop tighter.
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Old 12-01-2006, 12:54 PM   #5

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Re: Stop Loss or Target Price?

I use discretion to gauge when I'm out. I keep a hard stop at my bottom line just in case anything goes awry and I miss my discretionary stop (two is one, one is none-always have a backup). I don't always let a trade play itself all the way to my stop, if I see something obvious I get out. As far as profits, that is strictly discretionary. I just watch the tape and act accordingly.
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