Trailing Stop-Loss in Stocks Part-2

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Monthly Loss Limit of 6%
So, you have now established a system whereby your loss from each individual trade is limited to 2% of your risk capital. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that even losing a moderate 1% of your account's value in ten days within a month results in a rather devastating 10% of your account's value within that month (notwithstanding any profits that you might have made in the other twelve-odd trading days within the month). In addition to limiting losses from individual trades, we must establish a circuit breaker that prevents extensive overall losses during a period of time. A useful rule of thumb for overall monthly losses is a maximum of 6% of your portfolio. As soon as your account equity dips to 6% below that which it registered on the last day of the previous month, stop trading! Yes, you heard me correctly. When you have hit your 6% loss limit, cease trading entirely for the rest of the month. In fact, when your 6% circuit breaker is tripped, go even further and close all of your outstanding positions, and spend the rest of the month on the sidelines. Take the last days of the month to regroup, analyze the problems, observe the markets, and prepare for re-entry when you are confident that you can prevent a similar occurrence in the following month. How do you go about instituting the 6% loss-limiting system? You have to calculate your equity each and every day. This includes all of the cash in your trading account, cash equivalents, and the current market value of all open positions in your account. Compare this daily total with your equity total on the last trading day of the previous month and, if you are approaching the 6% threshold, prepare to cease trading. Employing a 6% monthly loss limit allows the trader to hold three open positions with potential for 2% losses each, or six open positions with a potential for 1% losses each, and so forth.

Making Necessary Adjustments
Every month Of course, the fluid nature of both the 2% single trade limit and the 6% monthly loss limit means that you must re-calibrate your trading positions h. If, for example, you enter a new month having realized significant profits the previous month, you will adjust your stops and the sizes of your orders so that no more than 2% of the newly calculated total equity is exposed to a risk of losses. At the same time, when your account rises in value by the end of the month, the 6% rule of thumb will allow you to trade with larger positions the following month. Unfortunately, the reverse is also true: if you lose money in a month, the smaller capital base the following month will ensure that your trading positions are smaller. Both the 2% and the 6% rule allow you to pyramid, or add to your winning positions when you are on a roll. If your position runs into positive territory, you can move your stop above break-even and then buy more of the same stock--as long as the risk on the new aggregate position is no more than 2% of your account equity, and your total account risk is less than 6%. Adding a system of pyramiding into the equation allows you to extend profitable positions with absolutely no commensurate increase in your risk thresholds.

Stop Loss in Stock Exchange

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It is an order placed with a broker to buy or sell once the stock reaches a certain price. A stop loss is designed to limit an investor's loss on a security position. Setting a stop loss order for 10% below the price at which you bought the stock will limit your loss to 10%. For example, let's say you just purchased XYZ at $ 50 per share. Right after buying the stock you enter a stop loss market order for $ 45. This means that if the stock falls below $ 45 per share your shares will then be sold at the prevailing market price.

Positives and Negatives
The advantage of a stop order is you don't have to monitor on a daily basis how a security is performing. This is especially handy when you are on vacation or having a full time job that prevents you from watching your security for an extended period of time. The disadvantage is that the stop price could be activated by a short-term fluctuation in a securities price. The key is picking a stop-loss percentage that allows a security to fluctuate day-to-day while preventing as much downside risk as possible. Setting a 5% stop-loss on a security that has a history of fluctuating 10% or more is not the best strategy: you will most likely just lose money on the commissions generated from the execution of your stop-loss orders. There are no hard and fast rules for the level at which stops should be placed.

This totally depends on your individual investing style: an active trader might use 5% while a long term investor might choose 15% or more. Another thing to keep in mind is that once your stop price is reached, your stop order is a market order, the price at which you sell may be much different from the stop price. This is especially true in a fast-moving market where stock prices can change rapidly. Not just for Preventing Losses Stop loss orders are traditionally thought of as a way to prevent losses. (After all, it's called a "stop loss" for a reason.) Another use of this tool, though, is to lock-in profits, in which case it is sometimes referred to as a trailing stop.

In all forms of long-term investing and short-term trading, deciding the appropriate time to exit a position is just as important as, if not more important than, determining the best time to enter into your position. Buying (or selling, in the case of a short position) is a relatively less emotional action than selling (or buying, in the case of a short position). When you enter a position, the potential for realized profits is but a dream and the possibility of losses is only a vaguely considered nightmare.

By contrast, when it comes time to exit the position your profits are staring you directly in the face, but perhaps they are telling you that there is potential for even greater profitability if you were just to ride the tide and exercise a little bit more patience. In the unthinkable case of paper losses, your heart tells you to hold tight, to wait until your losses reverse and the passage of time brings you into a profitable position once again. But such emotional responses are hardly the best means by which to make your selling (or buying) decisions. They are purely unscientific, and the presence of emotion brings you as far from a disciplined trading system as can be imagined.

Why People Like Sell Short in Stock Exchange

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The two primary reasons for selling short are opportunism and portfolio protection. Occasionally investors see a stock that they believe has been hyped to a ridiculously high level. They believe that the stock price will fall when reality replaces the hype.

A short sale provides the opportunity to profit from the overpriced stock. Short sales are also used to protect an investor's portfolio against a market downturn. By shorting stocks that the investor believes will fall sharply when the market as a whole falls, investors can help insulate the value of their portfolios against sudden market drops. Short selling is also used to protect portfolios against erosion due to a broad market decline. Short sellers make money when stock prices fall.

An investor can diversify a long portfolio by adding some short positions. The portfolio will then have positions that make money both when prices rise and when they fall. This reduces the volatility in the portfolio's returns and helps protect the value of the portfolio when prices are falling. By shorting carefully selected stocks that are priced near their peak but that will fall sharply if the market falls, an investor can use the profits from the short sales to help offset losses in his long position to protect the value of his portfolio.

Short selling just like long buying is essential for proper functioning of the stock market. It provides essential liquidity which in turn leads to proper price discovery.

How do Brokers Get The Stock

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Where Does The Broker Get The Stock?
The short answer is from other customers or the Stock Holding Corp. of your country. Short selling is a marginable transaction. In plain English, that means you must open a margin account to sell short. This is the same account you would use if you want to use your stocks as collateral margin to trade in the markets. When you open a margin account, you must sign an agreement with your broker. This agreement says you will maintain a cash margin or pledge your stocks as margin.

How Does Short Sell works?
Unlike a stock purchase transaction, which involves two parties (the buyer and the seller), short selling involves three parties: the original owner, the short seller, and the new buyer. The short seller borrows shares from the original owner, and immediately sells them on the open market to any willing buyer. To finalize ("close out") the short sale transaction, the short seller must then go out into the stock market and buy the same amount of shares as he sold so that the broker can return them to the original owner. To sell short you first must set up a margin account with your broker. A margin account allows you borrow from your brokerage company using the value of your portfolio as collateral. The general rule is that the value of your portfolio must equal at least 50% of the size of the short sale transaction. In other words, If you have $ 100,000 worth of stock/cash in your margin account, you can borrow $ 200,000 of stock to sell short. To sell a stock short, you must borrow stock. To initiate a short sale, you simply call up your broker and ask to sell short a specific number of shares of your selected stock. Your broker then checks with the Margin Department to see whether the shares are available or can be borrowed. If they are available, the brokerage borrows the shares, sells them in the open market, and puts the proceeds into your margin account. To close out your short sale, you tell your broker that you want to buy the same number of shares that you shorted. The broker will purchase the shares for you using the money in your margin account, return the shares and close out the short sale transaction. While your short sale is outstanding, your account will be charged interest against the value of the short position. If the stock you shorted goes up in price, or the value of the stock you are using as collateral goes down in price, so that your collateral is less than the "maintenance" requirement you will be required to add money to your margin account or buy back the stock that you sold short. You must also pay any dividends issued by the company whose stock you sold short.

Short Selling of Stock Exchange

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Traditionally the premise of investing is that you buy an asset and hold it until it rises enough to make a sizable profit, it doesn't get much easier than that. What about the times you come across a stock that you wouldn't invest a penny in, you know that stock is doomed, a sure loser. If you knew that the stock was going to decline wouldn't be nice to be able to profit from its decline. Well you can profit from the decline of a stock and although it sounds easy, there are substantial risks and pitfalls that you need to watch out for.

The mechanics of a short sale are somewhat complicated and the investor's risks are high so it is important that you understand the transaction before getting into it.

What does it mean to sell short?

If you sell a stock you don't own, you are selling short. A short seller sells a stock that he believes will fall in value. A short seller does not own the stock before he sells it. Instead, he borrows it from someone who already owns it. Later, the short seller buys back the stock he shorted and returns the stock to close out the loan. If the stock has fallen in price since he sold short, he can buy the stock back for less than he received for selling it. The difference is his profit. Short selling allows investors to profit from falling stock prices. "Buy low, sell high" is the goal of both short selling and purchasing shares ("going long").

A short sale reverses the order of a typical stock purchase: the stock is sold first and bought later. For example, in March 2002, Andy thinks HLL is overvalued. He sells short 100 shares of HLL at $ 5 per share. The stock market crashes in April and HLL's share price falls to $ 4.5 share. Andy buys back 100 shares of HLL and closes out the short sale. Andy gains the difference between the sales proceeds and the purchase costs and pockets $ 88 from the short sale, excluding transaction costs.

Mastering Risk and Reward in Trading

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Not mastering risk and reward in trading is probably the main reason why so many traders and investors are destined to fail. It's really dumb when you think about it, because reward/risk is the easiest way to get a definable edge on the market house. The reward/risk equation builds a safety net around your open positions. It's designed to tell you how much can be won, or lost, on each trade you take. The secondary purpose is to remove emotion so you can focus squarely on the cold, hard numbers.

Let's look at 15 ways that reward/risk will improve your trading performance. Every setup carries a directional probability that reflects a specific pattern. Always execute positions in the highest-odds direction. Exit your trades when a price fails to respond according to your expectations. Every setup has a price level that violates the pattern. Only take trades where price needs to move a short distance to hit this "risk target." Look the other way and find the "reward target" at the next support or resistance level. Trade positions with the highest reward target to risk target ratios. Markets move in trend and counter-trend waves.

Many traders panic during counter-trends and exit good positions out of fear. After every trend in your favor, decide how much you're willing to give back when things turn against you. What you don't see will hurt you. Back up and look for past highs and lows your trade must pass through to get to the reward target. Each price level will present an obstacle that must be overcome. Time impacts reward/risk as efficiently as price. Choose a holding period based on the distance from your entry to the reward target. Then use price and time for stop-loss management. Also use time to exit trades even when price stops haven't been hit. Forgo marginal positions and wait for the best opportunities. Prepare to experience long periods of boredom between frantic surges of concentration. Expect to stand aside, wait and watch when the markets have nothing to offer.

Good setups come in various shades of gray. Analyze conflicting information and jump in when enough ducks line up in a row. Often the best thing to do is calculate how much you'll lose if you're wrong, and then take the trade. Careful stock selection controls risk better than any stop-loss system. Realize that standing aside requires as much deliberation as an entry or an exit, and must be considered on every setup. Every trader has a different risk tolerance. Follow your natural tendencies rather than chasing the crowd. If you can't sleep at night, you're trading over your head and need to cut your risk. Never enter a position without knowing the exit. Trading is never a buy-and-hold exercise. Define your exit price in advance, and then stick to it when the stock gets there. Information doesn't equal profit.

Charts evolve slowly from one setup to the next. In between, they emit noise in which elements of risk and reward conflict with each other. Don't be fooled by beginner's luck. Trading longevity requires strict self-discipline. It's easy to make money for short periods of time. The markets will take back every penny until you develop a sound risk-management plan. Enter positions at low risk and exit them at high risk. This often parallels to buying at support and selling at resistance, but it can also be used to trade momentum with safety and precision. Look to exit in wild times in order to increase your reward. Wait for price acceleration and feed your position into the hungry hands of other traders just as the price pushes into a high-risk zone. Manage risk on both sides of the trade. Focus on optimizing entry and exit points and specialize in single, direct price waves. Remember that the execution of low-risk entries into bad positions allows more flexibility than high-risk entries into good positions.

What is Trend Trading of Stock Exchange

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Trend trading is one of the most effective and easy to use methods for making money in the market. Trend trading success depends on identifying and catching the trend after it has started and getting out of the trend as soon as possible after the trend reverses. Trend Trading involves taking a position in the markets with a view of holding that position for weeks to months for larger than normal gains. Trend traders or investors generally trade the long term or secular trends and are not concerned with the day to day market volatility.

Advantages of Trend Trading?
Trend trading is the fastest and most risk free way to make money in the markets. In trend trading you can identify a change of trend in the market as early as possible, take your position, ride the trend and close your position shortly after the trend reverses. With Trend Trading it is very possible to catch 60 to 80% of many intermediate term and long term market movements and thus create wealth for yourself and your family.

Trend Trading will help you take large profits out of the market, without having to watch the market or stocks on a minute-by-minute or even a day-by-day basis. Whether you are a short-term day trader or a long-term investor, we believe incorporating Trend Trading into your overall trading plan is a must. There are two types of trades: "Income producing" trades and "Wealth-building" trades. Swing trading and day trading produce income, while Trend Trading Picks is designed to amass wealth.

What are the advantages of Swing Trading

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Swing Trading combines the best of two worlds - the slower pace of investing and the increased potential gains of day trading. Swing Trading works well for part-time traders — especially those doing it while at work. While day traders typically have to stay glued to their computers for hours at a time, feverishly watching minute-to-minute changes in quotes, swing trading doesn't require that type of focus and dedication. While Day Traders gamble on stocks popping or falling by fractions of points, Swing Traders try to ride "swings" in the market. Swing Traders buy fewer stocks and aim for bigger gains, they pay lower brokerage and, theoretically, have a better chance of earning larger gains. With day trading, the only person getting rich is the broker. "Swing traders go for the meat of the move while a day trader just gets scraps." Furthermore, to swing trade, you don't need sophisticated computer hook-ups or lightning quick execution services and you don't have to play extremely volatile stocks. We believe that the Swing Trading method is a better way for the individual investor to attain superior investment results through short-term trading in the stock market. This trading strategy has been carefully designed for the needs of the individual investor who does not have the resources that institutions and professional money managers may have. To fully understand what swing trading really is, you first need to understand what up/down trends are.

Up Trend: Simply put an uptrend is a series of higher highs and higher lows. In other words, an uptrend is a series of successive rallies that extend though previous high points, interrupted by declines which terminate above the low point of the preceding sell-off. Often the high of the last "swing" in the trend will serve as support for the next low. These areas are circled.

Down Trend: Simply put a downtrend is a series of lower highs and lower lows. In other words, a downtrend is a series of successive declines that extend though previous low points, interrupted by increases which terminate below the high point of the preceding rally. Often the low of the last "swing" in the stock's trend will serve as resistance for the next high. These are circled.

Long Swing Trades: Once an uptrend has been identified a swing trader looks for buying opportunities in that stock. This can be identified when the stock experiences a minor pullback or correction within that uptrend. The swing trader then activates a trailing buy-stop technique. If prices break out above the trailing stop loss, you will be stopped out and long in the trade. If prices decline, your buy-stop will not be touched.

Short Swing Trades: Once an downtrend has been identified a swing trader looks for selling opportunities in that stock. This can be identified when the stock experiences a minor rally within that downtrend. The swing trader then activates a trailing sell-stop technique. If prices break down and fall below the trailing stop loss, you will be stopped out on the short side. If prices rally, your sell-stop will not be touched.

Trend Trading : A trend is nothing but the general direction of the price of an asset or market in general. A trend can apply to equities, bonds, commodities and any other market which is characterized by a long-term movement in price or volume.

Trading Methods

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Day Trading
Day Trading involves taking a position in the markets with a view of squaring that position before the end of that day. A day trader typically trades several times a day looking for fractions of a point to a few points per trade, but who close out all their positions by day's end. The goal of a day trader is to capitalize on price movement within one trading day. Unlike investors, a day trader may hold positions for only a few seconds or minutes, and never overnight. Real day trading means not holding on to your stock positions beyond the current trading day; in other words, not holding any position overnight. This is really the safest way to do day trading because you are not exposed to the potential losses that can occur when the stock market is closed due to news that can affect the prices of your stocks.

Day trading can be further subdivided into a number of styles:

1. Scalpers: This style of day trading involves the rapid and repeated buying and selling of a large volume of stocks within seconds or minutes. The objective is to earn a small per share profit on each transaction while minimizing the risk.

2. Momentum Traders: This style of day trading involves identifying and trading stocks that are in a moving pattern during the day, in an attempt to buy such stocks at bottoms and sell at tops.

Advantages of Day Trading
1. Zero Overnight Risk: Since positions are closed prior to the end of the trading day, news and events that affect the next trading day's opening prices do not effect your portfolio.

2. Increased Leverage: Day Traders have a greater leverage on their trading capital because of low margin requirements as their trades that are closed in the same market day. This increased leverage can increase your profits if used wisely.

3. Profit in any market direction: Day trading often will utilize short-selling to take advantage of declining stock prices. The ability to lock in profits even as markets fall throughout the trading day is extremely useful during bear market conditions.

Qualitative Factors in Stock Market

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Qualitative Factors - The Company Fundamental analysis seeks to determine the intrinsic value of a company's stock. But since qualitative factors, by definition, represent aspects of a company's business that are difficult or impossible to quantify, incorporating that kind of information into a pricing evaluation can be quite difficult. On the flip side, as we've demonstrated, you can't ignore the less tangible characteristics of a company.

Business Model - Even before an investor looks at a company's financial statements or does any research, one of the most important questions that should be asked is: What exactly does the company do? This is referred to as a company's business model – it's how a company makes money.

Competitive Advantage - Another business consideration for investors is competitive advantage. A company's long-term success is driven largely by its ability to maintain a competitive advantage - and keep it. Powerful competitive advantages, such as Reliance and Infosys brand name, create a moat around a business allowing it to keep competitors at bay and enjoy growth and profits. When a company can achieve competitive advantage, its shareholders can be well rewarded for decades.

Management - Just as an army needs a general to lead it to victory, a company relies upon management to steer it towards financial success. Some believe that management is the most important aspect for investing in a company. It makes sense - even the best business model is doomed if the leaders of the company fail to properly execute the plan. Every public company has a corporate information section on its website. Usually there will be a quick biography on each executive with their employment history, educational background and any applicable achievements. Don't expect to find anything useful here. Let's be honest: We're looking for dirt, and no company is going to put negative information on its corporate website.

Corporate Governance - Corporate governance describes the policies in place within an organization denoting the relationships and responsibilities between management, directors and stakeholders. These policies are defined and determined in the company charter and its bylaws, along with corporate laws and regulations. The purpose of corporate governance policies is to ensure that proper checks and balances are in place, making it more difficult for anyone to conduct unethical and illegal activities. Good corporate governance is a situation in which a company complies with all of its governance policies and applicable government regulations (such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002) in order to look out for the interests of the company's investors and other stakeholders. Although, there are companies and organizations (such as Standard & Poor's) that attempt to quantitatively assess companies on how well their corporate governance policies serve stakeholders, most of these reports are quite expensive for the average investor to purchase. Fortunately, corporate governance policies typically cover a few general areas: structure of the board of directors, stakeholder rights and financial and information transparency. With a little research and the right questions in mind, investors can get a good idea about a company's corporate governance.

Qualitative Factors - The Industry - Each industry has differences in terms of its customer base, market share among firms, industry-wide growth, competition, regulation and business cycles. Learning about how the industry works will give an investor a deeper understanding of a company's financial health.

Fundamental Analysis of Stock Market

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Fundamental analysis of stock market is the cornerstone of investing. In fact, some would say that you aren't really investing if you aren't performing fundamental analysis. Because the subject is so broad, however, it's tough to know where to start. There are an endless number of investment strategies that are very different from each other, yet almost all use the fundamentals. The biggest part of fundamental analysis involves delving into the financial statements. Also known as quantitative analysis of stock market, this involves looking at revenue, expenses, assets, liabilities and all the other financial aspects of a company.

The Very Basics of fundamental analysis of stock When talking about stocks, fundamental analysis is a technique that attempts to determine a security’s value by focusing on underlying factors that affect a company's actual business and its future prospects. Fundamental analysis serves to answer questions, such as: Is the company’s revenue growing? Is it actually making a profit? Is it in a strong-enough position to beat out its competitors in the future? Is it able to repay its debts? Is management trying to "cook the books?

Fundamentals: Quantitative and Qualitative
You could define fundamental analysis as “researching the fundamentals”. Fundamentals include anything related to the economic well-being of a company like revenue and profit. The various fundamental factors can be grouped into two categories: quantitative and qualitative. The financial meaning of these terms isn’t all that different from their regular definitions. Quantitative – capable of being measured or expressed in numerical terms. Qualitative – related to or based on the quality or character of something, often as opposed to its size or quantity. Quantitative fundamentals are numeric, measurable characteristics about a business. It’s easy to see how the biggest source of quantitative data is the financial statements. You can measure revenue, profit, assets and more with great precision. Turning to qualitative fundamentals, these are the less tangible factors surrounding a business - things such as the quality of a company’s board members and key executives, its brand-name recognition, patents or proprietary technology.

Quantitative Meets Qualitative

Neither qualitative nor quantitative analysis is inherently better than the other. Instead, many analysts consider qualitative factors in conjunction with the hard, quantitative factors. Take the Coca-Cola Company, for example. When examining its stock, an analyst might look at the stock’s annual dividend payout, earnings per share, P/E ratio and many other quantitative factors. However, no analysis of Coca-Cola would be complete without taking into account its brand recognition. Anybody can start a company that sells sugar and water, but few companies on earth are recognized by billions of people. It’s tough to put your finger on exactly what the Coke brand is worth, but you can be sure that it’s an essential ingredient contributing to the company’s ongoing success.