Being Wrong or Getting Stopped out of a Trade is Fine

Getting stopped out of a trade only to have it work

I receive many inquiries from Factor Members on the subject of getting stopped out of a trade only to have it turn around immediately and work. This has happened to me hundreds of times over the years. Does it bother me?

NO!

It once did – but I matured as a trader. Getting Stopped out of a trade only to have it work is the price to pay for protecting trading capital. It comes with the territory. It is the cost of being a
good risk manager. I put getting stopped into the following perspective:

• The overwhelming proportion of my net profits as a career trader have come from trades that never experienced a hard retest

• There have been hundreds of great trades in the past and there will be hundreds of great trades in the future (if I am around long enough to experience them)

I have the incredible benefit of data from thousands of actual trades. Using active and aggressive trade management guidelines does cost me some good trades. Based on my data, allowing trades more wiggle room would increase my trading profits by about 20% per year. Yet, I have hard data proving that active and aggressive trade management doubles my Profit Factor and Gain-to-Pain Ratio. I believe this trade-off between net profitability and asset volatility is completely worthwhile.