Having the price displaying on the stock would be good, maybe have the current price next to the P/L % could work. I keep track of my stops manually currently by keeping an eye on my sheet, to solve this really…it would be brillaint…no no AMAZING if you guys were to add stop losses or limit stops.
Really??? I think they’re pretty important. They allow you to set a stop on a price, below from where you bought in at. I generally set them at 8 / 15% below where I bought. If I was to be out and about, the stop would sell my position if it was reached. Keeping me a small loss, instead of letting it plummet.
They take the emotion out of trading, you could also raise your stops if you’re onto a winner to lock in profits. If your winner stock was to drop.
I, unfortunately, bought Slack and Beyond Meat on the way down (buy the dip!). They continued to plummet over the next month to a limit where I would have triggered my fail-safe, let’s say at 20% (I was 40% down on Beyond Meat at one point). This would have crystallised my losses.
With a little averaging down, at the moment I am only 5% down on Slack and 8% on Beyond Meat, holding them for just a couple of months later has recovered nearly all that I lost.
Here’s an article I read the other day that demonstrates my feelings towards stop losses:
Also, Joseph Carlson covered his thoughts on them here, which echoes my feelings:
I think they’re entirely subjective, but I guess I prefer to sell on my terms, I like it to be me that presses the button.
I do not set stop losses either, if you’re holding something and it’s gone down for no clear reason e.g. no bad news, no bad earning reports etc then why would you sell? The fundamentals are still the same, nothing has changed.
I get what you’re saying. But wouldn’t it of been better to sell your position at a 10% loss for example…and if you think it’s going back up buy back in at a cheaper level? That 40% could of gone to 60 / 70 / 80% etc.
Cutting small losses and letting your winners run would counter the small losses over time
Think you’re missing the point, if a stock was to dip. The stop wouldn’t be hit (depends on how close you set it to your buy price) You would have to look at the stock and their price support areas.
Stop losses are they to get you out of a stock if it tanks.
Exactly this. A stop loss is effectively a decision made in advance; if you know what’s likely to happen in the future then it’s useful, otherwise you’re making an uninformed decision before anything has happened. It is therefore most useful for short term day trading which isn’t Freetrade’s intent.
Last year SXX was at a point where the share price would either shoot up or collapse depending on the next headline. At that point it was a short term proposition and the context of the loss was known before it actually happened, so a stop loss would have been useful.
If you’re investing in a company for the long term then you’re probably better off without a stop loss so when a dip happens you can assess the context at the time and make an informed decision.
I have used SLs on some on my stocks in the past to protect profits more than prevent loss, which I guess is the same tbh. But I would set it at something like +50% when a position was at +100% and it worked well a few times.
I don’t use them anymore though. I think it is better to note down the reasons you bought in the first place and if that changes you know when to sell, plus set alerts so you don’t have to look at your portfolio everyday or week.
I could see the use for a trailing stop loss. If one of my stocks has rocketed in price, let’s say 80% in 3 months. I would find it very useful to then set a trailing stop loss at 20%. As mentioned earlier, I could then buy back in at a lower price or at worst find another opportunity with my expanded capital.
