Sun, I'm going to make this quick- I have to get back and finish tallying my losses :)
As for the Art of Investing, I think that there is no better time than the present to practice the art of setting stops. The last year or so I have shifted from trading to investing. I removed myself from the day to day activities of trading my stocks. I stopped placing stops. This was a huge mistake, IMHO, as I lost control of my investments and selling at , in retrospect, obvious points required emotional input which I could not muster. I have now learned that one may apply some of the tools and philosophies of the daytrader to longer term investments. It sounds so obvious now, but when your wife keeps telling you to "just let it be",well, it became difficult to make what I knew to be the right decision.
So, without all of the rambling, I will say this: Every long term investment I make from now on will be accompanied with a GTC stop order. More lenient than when I traded, to be sure, but they will be there none the less. |