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Jim Cramer's Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World
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Cutting
Losses
| What elements of the trading game do you concentrate
on each market day? Do you push hard for the big gain
but face big losses when the action suddenly turns on
you? Or do you slowly build up each profit and always
watch defensively for a quick exit when wrong? The path
you take will define your success or failure as a
trader.
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| Our online trading course MASTERING THE TRADE uses the
simplified table just below to illustrate a few
important observations about profit and loss. Most
trading strategies have a built-in success/failure rate.
For example, scalping incurs a high %WIN but a low
AvgWIN. Alternatively, buying breakouts reflects a lower
percentage of winners but the average gain is greater.
Regardless of how you trade, the market offers only
three ways to improve profitability (for any given
number of trades):
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| Day traders have fewer profitability options than
position traders. Price tends to move away from an entry
point as a function of time. So individual day trading
gains (AvgWIN) are generally smaller than position
trading gains. Very short-term time frames also
frustrate attempts to raise %WIN since day traders must
be right immediately while a position trader can wade
through many whipsaws to get to a profit.
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But day traders are in a much better position to control
losses than position traders. The price-time tendency
now works to their advantage. In other words, incurred
losses should be smaller (on average) because the
position is held a shorter period of time. This allows
day traders to take their individual losses closer to
-0- than position traders.
Manage the loss side of trades and you'll increase
profits more quickly than chasing gains. In preparing
your exit, recall a valuable rule for optimal technical
analysis entry: execute your trade where price must move
only a short distance to prove that you are wrong. This
frequently defines a strategy where you enter a
promising position right at support/resistance. If price
goes through the line, exit immediately with a small
loss and get on to the next trade.
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| You have to be
very, very good before you allow yourself to be
bad. %WIN simply measures your winners against
losers. If you make money on 3 out of 4 trades,
your %WIN is 75%. See how the average loss
changes from the 75% to 25% levels. |
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| AMZN's daily range
expands over a 3-day holding period. This
tendency of price to move away from an entry
point underscores a natural advantage the day
trader has over the position trader or investor.
The shorter a position is held, the more
efficiently losses can be taken. Day traders
must capitalize on this mechanism through quick
exits on non-performing entries. |
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