The Danger of Moving My Stop on $TSLA
I've been trading for over a decade, and you'd think the basics would be ingrained. Yet, about six months ago, I made the classic mistake of moving my stop. Had a decent long position in $TSLA. Price started to roll over, hit my initial stop level. Instead of honoring it, I rationalized, "It's just a quick shakeout." Moved it down a bit.
It wasn't a shakeout. It broke down hard, gapped lower the next day, and I ended up taking a loss that was more than double what my original risk on the trade was. It wiped out a good week's worth of gains. The lesson? Your stop is there for a reason. Respect it, or the market will teach you respect, often expensively.
It's interesting how even with years of experience, those mental traps can still get us. I'm trying to learn to trust my initial plan more, especially with stops. Did you end up recovering the loss, or was it a major hit?