Price Targets Hurt Your Profits

Price targets hurt your performance.

Human beings are "bad" at prediction. There is not much science in guessing where a bull or bear run will end. Previous highs don't necessarily infer a price point where a rally will stall.

Fundamentals matter.

Institutions - the biggest traders in the crowd - place their wagers based upon fundamentals and their overall business. If you don't have a simulator, you can trail the trade structure with a protective stop.

Place your protective stop on your unrealized gains where you'll be financially and psychologically ok if you stay in the trade and eventually get stopped out.

You can ask yourself "How much of my unrealized gains am I willing to risk in order to stay in the trade longer?" The recent bull move in the S&P is a good example of how you can (and should) let your winners run.

Once you do it a few times, you'll become very comfortable with this strategy. You'll come to find that "you didn't have to do anything" to make the extra gains.

Sit on your hands and forget price targets. Let the market tell you when the move is over.

Free Books

Inner Voice of Trading

Managing Expectations