Old Posts Tagged with "risk-management"

These are Blog Archives
Here you can find links to old content I had on the blog, prior to switching to our group pages. Have fun looking around... some of it is pretty good! If you are looking for the best of the best posts from both the old and new eras, then go to the Articles Page. If you want the newest material, browse the public group (and the google waves associated with it).

Guest Post: To sum it up…

Posted on January 31st, 2008
Written by Mr. White Folks

I agree with most of what LP said in this comment. Now if he would quite being a statesman, and get back to the name calling!
Unlike Bill I do believe in black swans. Not that not believing in it is bad either. (that’s the statesman in me). The problem is that I’m torn between [...]

Guest Post: What Is A Stop Loss For, Anyway?

Posted on March 20th, 2007
Written by Prospectus

I’m beginning to see stop losses and R multiples in a different light lately, and especially since my last trade. I wanted to write about what a stop loss is and what it isn’t.
What A Stop Isn’t
Many people see their stop loss as the point that they admit that they were “wrong” about taking [...]

More “Futures Fever”

Posted on December 23rd, 2006
Written by Richard

I mentioned in my last post on the topic that Ugly took a hit trying out futures. Now, it looks like Phileo caught “futures fever” and took a bigger loss than he wanted.
Phileo’s smart, and will recover stronger for it. In a way, this is the best outcome when you lose sight of [...]

I, for one, …

Posted on December 20th, 2006
Written by Richard

I, for one, welcome our new futures-trading overlords…
Well, you gotta admire the enthusiasm of CalTrader, who wants to show you how to build wealth by simply making 20% every day you trade. Needless to say I’m skeptical. That doesn’t mean I’m a naysayer like he’s complaining about in his post. I know [...]

What Risk:Reward Ratio is Right for You?

Posted on August 4th, 2006
Written by Richard

Ever wonder why a 1:3 Risk:Reward ratio is so prevalent as a rule of thumb? Ever since I’ve been reading about trading, I’ve heard people say that they ideally look for at least a 1:3 ratio, even if they’ll settle for 1:2. In this article, I’ll talk about how you can derive this [...]

Relative Danger of Trading Account Sizes

Posted on June 22nd, 2006
Written by Richard

Most everyone intuitively knows that it’s harder to bankrupt bigger accounts than it is to bankrupt smaller ones (assuming all else approximately equal). But, for any two account sizes, just how much more or less danger is there? Twice as much? Ten times? Can you put a number on it? [...]

We are all at risk, part deux: diversification

Posted on May 21st, 2006
Written by Richard

I’ve always thought about diversification as the buy-and-holder’s game.  As in, not applicable to me. It always struck me as a strategy for people holding only long positions… they want to be in several industries so that if one declines, it doesn’t pummel them too badly.
The way to build wealth fast for a trader [...]

We are all at risk!

Posted on May 20th, 2006
Written by Richard

We are all, theoretically, at risk of total financial ruin. Imagine you find a system with a 99.9% success rate, an average per-trade gain of 50% equity, and an average loss of only 0.01% of equity. You would use it, right? So would I! After all, the expectancy would be: [...]