Cut losses quickly, let profits run

The title says it all. I had a winning trade and I didn’t let profits run. It’s a two-fold situation really.

I had TGT in place and was away from the screens. The TGT was around 15% profit, not being too greedy to let the trade turn around against me. So I didn’t get all that up bar, still a nice gain for a two day trade (entry and exit marked with arrows).

So what to do in such situation? Nothing, really. You need to respect your initial trading plan. I had TGT in place and it was a short-term mean reversion type of trade, not a trend follow. In hindsight, I could have had double the profit on the same day but in hindsight everything looks more clear than at the right edge of the screen.. 😉

I should be focusing more on losing trades, they teach what not to do; and I have plenty of them. Tho for the past weeks it’s been quite steady grind with small wins and small losses, nothing spectacular. I want to share a losing trade with a quick exit.

I’ve been grinding on the long side but decided to add shorting into my system.. stocks go down too you know. CSCO was one of my first shorts, but it wasn’t working out in my favor so I decided to cut my loss quickly. Re-entry is only a commission away!

CSCO broke support on the day of my entry but recovered. After my exit, it held and never gave another chance. See my entry and exit on the chart (red arrow is selling short, green arrow where I covered), the lesson was positive this time, my exit proved to be a wise move in hindsight.

Keep grindin’.

Lesson Learned: Cut losses quickly, let profits run.