Thanks guys, and yeah I've been watching your videos David, they are the best resource on the web I have found. I just finished your Candlestick + Tech Analysis video sections and I learned so much, and anytime I forget things I know right where to go. You have saved me at least 200 dollars in book costs etc let alone how much you've earned me haha. I have so much to learn, and I just started watching your Risk Management series and I think I'm good w/ my losses, but I think I should give some of my stocks which gain less than 1% more time to run. Often if they are at 1% return, and it's ticking down enough I will sell even if the technicals disagree, the part about how a 90k return vs 10k return 95% of the time w/ no gain 5% of the time averages 9.5 was very eye opening.

As for the subject at hand, when I say I risk 5k per trade, I mean all my position are sized @ 5% of my total equity, if I am very sure of a particular trade and expect it to make a big move (I did this with Fannie Mae recently) i'll risk 7.5k but I guess risk is a misnomer
since the largest stop I will place is @ 2%, but I look at volatility for this #.

What are some good rules for stop placement?

How should I size my positions, I know people recommend 2% of your total equity, but I find it hard to find 50 stocks worth trading a day(maybe I should start swing trading more =] ) I just think I'm doing something wrong by making all my trades 5%. (should they ever be different sizes?)

How much of a loss does slippage cause in stock trading, j/w?


As for Shaun, I'm not sure if we are on the same page. When I make trades, I subtract the amount of the trade + commissions from acct. balance, simply so I know how much I have out on the market (and because it helps simplify excel calculations). As I've pointed out 50,000 is never at risk, in fact only yesterday did I actually put almost all $110k on the market (22 trades, I made a 2.14% return) and even then my biggest single stop was 1.5% which means the largest loss i could incur was about 2.5k dollars(that is if ALL my positions TANKED). And for the returns I have consistently got(i say this lightly since I've papertrade barely 2 weeks now) I think I would take that gamble (i'm a poker player and the #'s look good) but I am a very new trader and have no experience so please tell me if I'm wrong.

Sorry for the massive post, and thanks again David,

sawyer