The power of quitting while you’re
ahead in trading should not be
underestimated, but unfortunately it
often is.

At Netpicks we really take this to heart
and as part of our day trading rules,
we clearly outline in our trade plans
how many winning trades we can take
before stopping for the session.

I want to outline a few ideas about the
power of quitting (POQ) as there are
some people who still don’t “believe”
in it as a useful principle.

For those who don’t buy into the idea,
quitting while you’re ahead simply
inhibits your ability to pull profits from
the markets when they’re moving in a
favorable manner. Why on earth stop
when there’s money to be made?

And it’s quite counter-intuitive to the
idea that markets are changeable and
therefore you should try to take what’s
on offer – good or bad. You should
stop when the markets tell you that
they’re not willing to give any more.

In an ideal world, this definitely makes
a lot of sense. But markets are not
ideal, the humans who trade them are
not ideal and even trading algos are
not ideal (as they are designed by
humans).

There are two facets to this problem –
technical and emotional. Whether you
trade manually or automated, you’ll be
susceptible to both of these to some
extent.

There are some specific reasons why
as a trader you might not want to keep
pressing the gas pedal in all
circumstances. Of course there are
some days where you can finish for the
day with an awesome P/L, but most
day this isn’t likely.

The fact of the matter is that most
markets don’t trend for the majority of
the time. For intraday trading there
might be one or two good moves to
take advantage of per session.

When a market has made its moves for
the day, getting involved in the chop
isn’t likely to generate more ticks –
quite the contrary.

Now if you’re into stats and
probabilities, you’ll likely be thinking
that each opportunity is discrete and
has an independent probability. At
least this is an easy way to view it and
it’s not actually the wrong way to go
about trading at all.

But if your strategy is trying to capture
a move and a move has already
happened, doesn’t that actually
impact upon the chances of the next
trade being successful?

So you’ve got to think very carefully
about this and if by continuing to trade
past a certain profit point, time of day
or even a particular technical signal,
your chances of winning on the next
trade are as good as they were at the
start of the session.

If you don’t currently understand the
power of quitting while you’re ahead,
I’m sure you will do at some point in
the future.

I can’t tell you the number of times
that I’ve made some good profits early
on in a session, kept trading, lost some
money, made it back and finished on a
similar amount of ticks for the day.

This is commission churning at best
and emotion churning at worst. And
this is if you are even able to get back
to your peak P/L.

If a trading loss has made your trading
become emotionally charged and the
market that you’re trading has
changed its behavior, you may not
recognize this in time.

Taking a few decent winners and then
giving it all back often portends to
ending up being down for the day.

If this has ever happened to you, you’ll
understand just how gut-wrenchingly
painful it can be. One session like this
doesn’t usually happen in isolation
either.

Building up the emotional strength
and capacity to deal with negative
situations – losses, errors or missed
opportunities for example – can have a
huge positive effect on your trading
and your growth as a trader.

By understanding and embracing the
power of quitting, you can support
your personal trader development.
Not only that, but you’ll likely see
some gains in the momentum behind
your trading capital growth –

and a smoother equity curve means
increasing position sizes and a greater
potential for return.