How Do I Stay Big for the Real Move?

Dear Bella,

I can not wait for The Playbook!

I started “eating” everything on the SMB Blog six months ago and went though key haha moments thanks to what I learnt, which suddenly made me a lot more profitable (kind of wasted 2 years with useless teachers).

So I started to build a playbook ( my Iphoto app became full of the setups I like ) and I started scaling in and out, trying to stay in the stock as big and as long as possible. I need now to optimize my scaling in and out tricks, I often noticed that I’m not big enough anymore in the stock when it keeps going in the direction of the trade I took for a few more points….

I try to use the “reasons to sell” for starting to scale out and check the 5 mins and 15 mins charts to see if we’re still trending. I also try to scale in when the stocks gets above new key levels or retesting a level with action on the tape that confims my bias.

My question is what could help me more to stay big as long as possible ?

I also want to be more efficient executing orders, I use InteractiveBrokers and I’m not familiar with the software U use that I’m sure offers more features, maybe U could tell us what are the key shortcuts U use to be able to react to any situations very quickly.

I attached a chart of IBM with comments on how I played it that day (few months ago).

Au revoir et merci beaucoup !

@mikebellafiore

I wrote extensively in The PlayBook about techniques to hold your winning positions for the real move. First, I suggest determining your Trades2Hold, trades that are worth holding. Next, I outline a strategy for exiting, which we call Reasons2Sell (see our Webinar on Reasons2Sell). I describe those Reasons2Sell in detail. Further, I introduce a system for you to determine your risk for each of your trades, which will help you hold. Finally, you might also want to work with a psychology trading coach to hold your winning trades longer. Dr. Menaker is in our office as I write talking to some of our traders, and has worked one-0n-one with our traders in the past.