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Online Share Trading

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the hardest question in trading

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Not applicable
when to take profit - still the hardest aspect of trading, that I can never seem to refine. Some of my trades are system trades, like the topi. where I will exit on lower low. But that is easy to manage, because it is not volatile, and the mechanism is not very effective for most individual shares.
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7 REPLIES 7
jack12
Super Contributor
I think profit taking is when the winners stop winning. drop the anchors and the sidecutters.
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Not applicable
and first prize for the most cryptic post of the year goes to??
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john_1
Super Contributor
What about a relative stop...Somthing I have developed....OK to beat the index all one needs is to eliminate the lagards from the index..so if the index is the top 40 if I own the top 5/10/20 best performing shares I will outperform the bench mark every single year infinitium...so All I need is a the index a regular way of tracking the index .I buy if a lagard enters the 5/10/20 and sell if a performer drops out of the running...SO here enters the relative stop...If it drops by more than x% (maximum daliy loss) or falls out of my relative topshare index on a (weekly/monthly basis) at the close on friday I check my index and if anglo is in 9th place out of 10 and tenth is 2% below...the stop is 2.1% for the next week.... I hope this helps..
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Not applicable
and first prize for the most cryptic post of the year goes to?? -john? Thats making your limit based on positions relative amoungst shares in the pack,.. thats as good as intervals between passing cars in the morning,.. basing the following days traffic to the times between bumpers,.. actually you have a point there, you would probably be able to determine intensity and volume,.. but yea, ? worked with factors to x those % performance relationship figures against ? or does the straight difference suit in most cases?,...
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divz
Super Contributor
skaap when you enter the trade to do you have an exit target? I used to have the same problem that i could see the entry but not the exit. Now i set my exit before i enter when i hit the target i sell if the price moved quickly through the target i set a trailing stop. I must say i have missed oppurtunities to make more on a trade as it still moves higher than the exit target but then so be it. Initially i found that when i did get to the target greed sets in and i used to leave the trade to see if there is not more in it this normally backfired on me with the share dropping way below target again so now i just stick to my initial exit target and making some money.
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Not applicable
Div, for my trend following systems, i never set profit targets, only stops, except when I swing trade, but I only swing trade in choppy markets, not raging bull trends. John, your suggestion has merit, I will study it over the weekend, thanks!
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Mar-11
Super Contributor
I normally like to sell a % of my investment, once iv made a good profit, and leave a % in. This way you take a profit but you still have the chance to make more, should the share go up?
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