Peace with the mullahs? No chance... we love Iranians but the Islamic terrorist mullahs are a non starter. They must go.

I wish a person had a difficult life instead of being foolish and dishonest.

Ww:. You have before mentioned wanting to combat bad advice on these forums. Unless I misunderstood you (and correct me if I did), your binary statement is just that. For beginners, yes, stops can be useful tools to prevent account blowups. Mechanical stops are great for certain traders/trades throughout a career, but, just like any defined risk position, they can be also detrimental/unnecessary.

Removing mechanical stops is ALWAYS a prospect for traders. It is simply is a matter of risk tolerance. I haven't used one in 10+ years trading futures/stocks...and, arguably, there have been some wild markets in those years. Now, it took a 15 years before I could get to that place, and I still get skittish when things move "too quickly", but that skittishness is nearly always a function of being over levered vs "knowing" where I should be placing a stop.

To beginners (and smaller/starter accounts out there: using stops will certainly cause instances of grief when you get stopped out and see an instant reversal in your original direction. However, we tend to remember those "lost opportunities" more than when the stop 'saves' you from losing more money and, thus, allows you to stay liquid. Start small. Start controlled. Grow into size.

Beware of ANYONE (I try my hardest to avoid this) telling you ANYTHING definitive about how/when to trade. Even if they/we have the best intentions, we have been shown time and again that markets love to confound expectations and "beliefs". Plus, none of us knows the other's situation (bankroll, age, risk tolerance, portfolio intentions, etc).

Best of luck to new traders out there!

I totally agree re definitive advice.

My clearer wouldn’t clear my business without the use of stops.

In my 15 years of automated quant trading, I’m yet to hear a non-shit argument for not using stops. Points at which taking a loss is obligatory is the ultimate “I don’t know”. A trader that can only operate under “I-know”, isn’t a trader: They are cannon fodder (whether or not they realise).

There’s alpha and then there’s capital preservation. Returns are geometric vis a vis a capital base.

Sorry old chap… but i’m again sensing bullshit from you.

The correct use of and placement of stops is a good exercise in optimisation in any trading plan.

They are simply another parameter. The optimal stop may be no stop.

Anything else is subjective or psychological and by definition not optimal.

If no stop is the only way your signal optimisation yields efficacy…., then your signal isn’t a signal to be traded.

You only have to curve fit to a tiny number of shit shows, without a stop, and your optimisation yields great results.

Taking losses is what this game of decision making under incomplete info and radical uncertainty is all about.

In english: Start with the constraints of losses you must realise if they arise, then ask yourself if you can make a return on that constraint.

The other way (the approach you imply), is nothing more than curve fitting your ego (and the data
ofc).

Take losses… learn to love it too. Look like an arse, fell like an arse.

The naive hubris of retail forum users (eg ffghost), is always gonna trigger me. Trading simply isn’t that difficult ffs.

A lesson in vocabulary: arse, hubris, ego, radical uncertainty, curve fitting, incomplete info, tiny number of shit shows.

This is not a mature and responsible analysis.

Is this reply another ego curve fit?

Any approach to life where one tiny bit of bad luck (something not seen by your optimisation approach), ends you… Is not the way.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Petersburg_paradox