MiniMe,

I think you have misunderstood what I wrote.

Stops are great tools if you know how to use it (most newbies don't). They can help you get out of a position when you are wrong (market dictated), and prevent a complete wipeout during an unforseen market disaster.

I don't use stops with fixed constant values (because most are over-optimized and derived from historical profitability) for every trade. I don't believe in these kinds of static stops, and most of the traders use these kind of static stops...most will just slowly bleed their account. I let the market tell me where my directional bias is incorrect, and where I need to get out or reverse my position. If I'm wrong, I'm out. I don't get attached to the trade. I'm constantly managing each trade for risk, mostly lowering my risk profile or increasing my risk slightly for much more rewards.

Again, I'm talking about trading concept, not system development. These are lessons I learned from manual traders, which should be the core of any traders knowledge base. Trust me, these bits of wisdom that I've extracted from the old timers were not given out to me, I had to read and really study what they were saying. They mostly talk in bits and pieces because they are also protecting their livelihood/edge, which is perfectly understandable. And it wasn't until I had to go through the trials by fire of the market before I can process what was said and finally understood what was actually being said. I've failed many times before, not sure I have any ego left actually. I traded like a new trader, cost averaging down, and picking tops/bottoms, trying to buy low and sell high. Now, I try to do exactly the opposite of a new trader because I understand exactly what I did wrong and all of my weaknesses that the market exploited. I had to completely change my whole mindset to "not be that", and I also realize that I would not have come to that conclusion without my failures.

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Life is a Gamble. You win some. You lose some. And life goes on.