yah, totally agree, cash is king...

can imagine ~4months back cosco trading around $2.50++... if bought 10lot then... and hold and hold... by 2 months back when the price drop until $0.7... 3.5times value depreciation... wat you get? only heart pain and sianz-ness... cos money all locked inside 10lots and dun know when can recover...

now imagine same price at $2.50++ with 10lots... sold at a lost at $2.3... keep cash... market drop some more and held around $.08~0.9 range... you buy 10lots... now basically you still get to keep the 10 lots, and safe about $1.4 of the difference and got more money on hand to buy more lots too...

Then again bro, likely at that point in time, none of us knew when the lowest point was to entry... same for now we won't know if it's a recovery rally... so the rules applies... with cash in hand, you can shop around pick up good bargin, and if lost a bit, sell and walk away mayb with the lesson of picking a wrong counter... then again with this violate market with lots of sideway price movement, going long can be dangerous too... All the BEST!!! Good Luck to All in the New Year... Bulls Away

Ha ha, brother, congrate. Professional trader's advice.

Cash Is King is one of the tricks of the stock investment. Apparently, now is a much better bargain on the same stock which u had dumped in bad time. And more meat as well. Cheers.

Hi, i agreed with you too... got myself burned after a first few winning trades... got burned during the Sep/Oct big drop period... thinking back again, if i dun adopt stop lost back then, i think i'll become deeply entrenched! and would taken donkey years before can even recovery my capital...

So your stop loss really depends on situation... and should be in place especially if your invested capital is your "only" capital... just my honest sharing from my previous mistake... still learning though

Thanks Laulan, now you've explained yourself, I understand your good intentions. A friend told me, everybody makes losses in the stock market, unless he's perfect. The key is to learn from your mistakes, and move on. My mistake was greed, especially when the first few trades resulted in immediate returns. I've learnt a hard lesson and need to remind myself of this weakness.

Cheers and good luck to all.

Equator2010, should say you're really a good example of greenhorn using stop loss.

Stop loss strategies are only for the professionals who are trading the stock market or forex or even gold.  For small retailers, just target a counter or two.  Buy at a target price, don't expect to make money immediately  (ok sometimes you lucky you make immediately but "they" won't let you do that too often.) Keep for a while as a losing investment until they play up.  This is that simple.  If you can't stand to lose at first, then stop stock trading and put your money on a small business.  The small business will make more $$$ for your than the stock market.