stops

Once again, I'm thinking about my stop strategy. I have been using a
strict system where when I place my order, I put in a sell stop to
liquidate a position on the downside and also a limit order to sell 1/2
my position at a profit target.

But the age old dilemma is how do you keep your stops from being picked
off intra-day? You can try and put it low enough so that it's out of
the average true range, but that can widen it so much that you have to
significantly decrease your position if you want to keep your risk
small.

I know the best strategy is probably just to go off closing prices.
Yes, you will get rocked every once in a while, but probably not as much
as you don't get shaken out by not having the order on the books. I was
afraid that I would not have the discipline to do it, and that's why I
was putting hard stops in.

But I think I have a new way of doing it. I made an index card that I
keep next to my monitor. On it, I'm writing all my stocks as I buy them
and exactly what price my stop will be. That is the line in the
sand--no ifs, ands, or buts. If it closes below that price, I put in a
market order to sell the next day. This will require me to look at
closing prices every day, but I'm okay with that.