Money Advice Guide

When traders first begin considering their stop losses, keep in mind this comment from Tom Baldwin, a leading day-trader. He said, “The best traders have no ego.”

Successful traders are faced with losses constantly, and they swallow their pride and get out of the position when they have to. This allows traders to survive in the market long enough to be successful. Traders set their stop losses, and then stick to the plan.

How do traders go about setting stop losses? There are several different ways. Traders could base a stop loss on a percentage retracement, where the allowed share prices retrace a certain percentage of the entry price before the exit. Different indicators can be used to identify where the stop loss is going to be set. Traders could also use support and resistance stops to set the level at which exit is made. The key is to simply have a stop loss in place.

Personally, I find these options too subjective. I prefer having a mechanical way to calculate my stop losses, so I use a volatility based stop. The reason I use this type of stop is because volatility generally represents a measurement of how quickly the stock either rises or falls (market noise). Consequently, if I measure the stocks volatility, and take a multiple of that value, I’m probably going to have set my stop loss beyond the immediate noise of the market. This ensures I am not stopped out of a position too often.

Traders can measure volatility by using the Average True Range (ATR) of a stock. This value can be found with most charting packages. Basically, the Average True Range (ATR) indicates how much a stock will move on average over a certain period. For example, if traders had a one dollar stock that moved up five cents on average over the last 20 days, that doesn’t tell traders whether the stock is moving up or down. It just tells traders on average how much the particular stock moves. The average true range is a great tool and that can be utilized in the traders trading plan for more than setting stops. If traders are not familiar with setting stops, I recommend traders to do research. One place for excellent article sources is at the System Trading Blog .

Traders use indicators in calculating the stop loss by subtracting a multiple of the Average True Range (ATR) from the entry price. For instance, I could take two times the ATR and subtract it from my entry price. If we look at the example, I just touched on, with a one dollar stock, an ATR value of five cents and a multiple of two the amount is ten cents. Which, subtracted from our entry price of one dollar gives a stop loss value of 90 cents.

Before traders even enter a position, they should know where the selling point of the stock should be. If the share price doesn’t move in the traders favoured direction, but moves against them, traders will know when to sell. Emotions are removed from the equation, and they simply follow what the stop loss dictates.

This is how most successful traders limit their losses. They know when they’re going to sell before they begin trading. Although their methods of calculating this stop loss may vary, all traders have a stop loss in place. The stop loss is a crucial part of the traders trading system. Without it, even the best designed trading system can’t deliver profits.

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When this president’s father was in the Oval Office, he was fond of singing the praises of the “New World Order” that was to arrive. The phrase carried a lot of baggage, especially with conservatives who had long heard the term associated with a one-world government with little room for individual rights. Some believe the first George Bush’s attachment to this term hurt his chances for re-election, and contributed to the movement that brought Ross Perot into the fray and split the conservative vote.

The current president has steered clear of the specific terminology, but only an ostrich with his head in the sand would say that we are not moving headlong toward a reorganization of the world system, and it has become clear that individual rights are at risk. The war in Afghanistan was not only inevitable, but was probably desirable. Iraq was no ones’ friend, and even those of us who questioned the wisdom of invasion had difficulty opposing the end of such an abusive regime. However the trend is disturbing as we now speak casually of invading Syria, Iran, or North Korea. Not only does the war posturing make us globally unpopular (and therefore unable to extol the virtues of free markets), wars also bring with them serious limits on freedom at home. We’ve begun to see some of that.

Laws like the Patriot Act are so comprehensive that most of us are likely violating a half dozen edicts without knowing it. The difference this time is that conservatives are largely supportive of all these actions. Strangely, all the things that Bill Clinton could never have gotten past the Republican Congress are sailing through with little forethought.

Meanwhile, we have lost the attention of nations around the world. We imagined that the menace of communist based philosophies died with the Berlin Wall, but now we are faced with socialists winning elections worldwide. The new look of the “World Order” is not a pretty one, and clearly not one that values freedom. Yet we have no voice in world affairs, where many smaller nations have begun to view America as a bully. The fact that we are “in the right” isn’t important in this area, as one cannot force freedom’s acceptance. It is a tenuous choice that a nation must make for itself. The approach we’ve taken recently has limited our ability to offer our wisdom.

In light of these world changes, it may be wise to consider our investment strategies. It is fair to say that investing overseas may meet with some difficulty, but if trends continue, we may see trouble here as well. Alas, so much of American business success is due to exports, yet we’re faced with protectionist barriers coming up against us in many nations. Some of this is justified, because although other nations tend to have much higher barriers, America has recently begun to impose rather restrictive tariffs as well. The idea of a free-trade zone, such as NAFTA, actually is an enemy to true free trade, because it actually prevents free trade with nations outside the limited trade bloc.

All of this may eventually impact American companies, as they find international trade opportunities severely restricted. The past two decades were a time of relative freedom internationally for travel, trade, and discussion. That may change, and if it does, the impact could be devastating. The last time we restricted world trade to this extent, the period culminated in the great depression. We’re a long way from that today, but without some wise leadership, we may find ourselves facing further difficulties. Thus far, sadly, this administration has shown little strength in economic issues.

Changes in the world make our investment strategies critical to our future. More than ever, a careful plan is vital to our ability to weather the storms that may come in the economy.

To send comments or to learn more about Scott Pearson’s Investment Management Service, visit http://www.valueview.net

Scott Pearson is an investment advisor, writer, editor, instructor, and business leader. As President and Chief Investment Officer of Value View Financial Corp., he offers investment management services to a wide variety of clients. His own newsletter, Investor’s Value View, is distributed worldwide and provides general money tips and investment advice to readers both internationally, and in the U.S.

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