DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!!!. LONG POINTLESS POST AHEAD!!!!
A question seeking answers (or thoughts, anyway) from the thread:
Does anyone regularly "double-up" on their winners?
Stayed awake quite awhile Tuesday, trying to reconcile why I'd made the trades I did. 1)Doubled down on AAPL when I was down close to a point. 2) Sold LCOS up two.
I started thinking about this question again today after Poet's post where he (or she, I don't know) said he'd bought GNET at 51 1/2 and 49 7/8. I assumed, when I read it, that she'd first bought at 51 1/2, and doubled down at 49 7/8.
Now in the AAPL trade, I'm thinking (if you can call it thought, more instinct, like a caveman fleeing from a sabertooth tiger) "stock's got to move a full point to get even, if I double-down it only needs to move 1/2 to get even." I'm thinking about not losing money, and apparently I'm willing to risk losing more money to avoid losing any. This despite the fact that every thing I believe in on an intellectual level tells me to take my loss and move on. Trade the system, trade the rules.
Now, contrast that to the LCOS trade. I'm up more than two, it starts back down and I sell for two. Instead, why not "double up" on the winner? If I'm up two, and I "double up", then the stock has to reverse a full point to get me to even, right? But the thought never occurs to me. In the first trade, I'm risking more pain (losses larger than 1 point) to avoid pain, but in the second, I'd be risking no pain (getting out even if the stock drops another point) for more gain. What's up with that?
The second makes more sense, but I've only done it a couple of times, and then only when I've bought thru a Gap sell reversal and the stock then crosses it's buy trigger.
So...I'd like to hear from others if they find themselves in the same boat, from time to time, and how they handle the waters around them. (no mixed metaphors here, hey?) Does anyone double-up to increase pleasure in the same way they double-down to reduce pain?
TIA,
Jay
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