Cut Your Losers

A big debate among traders is whether to sell your losing stocks or hold onto them. Obviously, dependent on both the short and long-term outlook of a stock each side could have a winning argument.

Whether there is a right or wrong answer, when solely using technical analysis for your stock picking analysis, YOU MUST ALWAYS SELL YOUR LOSERS.

The great thing about technical analysis is that it takes emotion out of trading; however, emotion will always be there for other traders. That is why stocks can easily dip or jump higher in a single day – generally it is a reaction to a tangible action that just happened.

When executing trades through the signals of technical analysis, there are always stop points or places where the trade is consider a failure . For the most part, that point of interest is determined by recent price action of a stock. Learn more about the art of stops.

Technical analysis all about using the setup that gives the trader the highest probability of success. Once that setup is broken, your original probability is out the window. Get it?

Basically once your stock dips below the “failure” point the criteria that you essentially bought the stock on no longer stands. Now you are just swinging into the wind hoping for the stock to come back.

Instead I recommend you cut your losses and move on to the next trade. It’s all about keeping the odds in your favor.