Trader Mindset

Fully Loaded


Listen Later

What do you do when you have all your capital committed, but you get a NEW trade signal before you get stopped for a loss or take a winner to free up some buyer power?

This can happen when you have a smaller account. It can also happen if you have a larger account, but have a maximum amount of the account that you commit to margin. 

If you have a smaller account, my recommendation is to sell the biggest loser to free up the cash / buying power. This is done before your protective sell stop is hit.

In my experience, trades that have made me money did so from the 'get go' so that's why I puke out the biggest loser at that time. I believe that you'll be better served by taking the new trade that has momentum behind it. 

If you have a larger account with a "target margin percentage" based upon the total assets under management, you can set a circuit breaker to make a rule around this occurrence.

For example, you might have a rule that allows you to commit as much as 15% of your capital to margin in your futures trading account. That means $150,000 for every $1,000,000 under management. 

Do you allow it to go to $200,000 intraday? Do you offset the biggest losers or oldest positions that do not have unrealized gains in order to free up the margin?

Look at your backtest and see how many of those losing trades came back to be winners. In my experience, only a small percentage will (at least based upon how I trade). 

Many of these new trade signals will be for additional risk units to existing winning trades in your portfolio if you have this as part of your system, that's why this rule is important. 

It's not uncommon for me to have initiated 4-5 trades (in different names), only to have 1-2 knocked out for losses, 1-2 be flat, and 1-2 show modest gains. Once in a while, one position will run like the wind. [Sometimes, I get knocked out for losses across the board - fun times...]

If I get a signal to add to the winner, the margin has to come from somewhere if I have not gotten stopped or taken a gain from a system generated order. 

 

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Trader MindsetBy Michael Martin

  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9

4.9

109 ratings


More shows like Trader Mindset

View all
We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network by The Investor's Podcast Network

We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network

3,371 Listeners

Chat With Traders by Ian Cox and Tessa Dao

Chat With Traders

1,993 Listeners

Top Traders Unplugged by Niels Kaastrup-Larsen

Top Traders Unplugged

590 Listeners

The Knowledge Project by Shane Parrish

The Knowledge Project

2,691 Listeners

Desire To Trade Podcast | Forex Trading & Interviews with Highly Successful Traders by Etienne Crete

Desire To Trade Podcast | Forex Trading & Interviews with Highly Successful Traders

103 Listeners

Founders by David Senra

Founders

2,173 Listeners

Swing Trading the Stock Market by Ryan Mallory

Swing Trading the Stock Market

806 Listeners

Trading Nut | Trader Interviews - Forex, Futures, Stocks (Robots & More) by Cam Hawkins

Trading Nut | Trader Interviews - Forex, Futures, Stocks (Robots & More)

223 Listeners

My First Million by Hubspot Media

My First Million

2,647 Listeners

B The Trader by Alex B

B The Trader

357 Listeners

Stock Market Options Trading by Eric O'Rourke

Stock Market Options Trading

298 Listeners

The Day Trading Show by Austin Silver

The Day Trading Show

58 Listeners

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg by All-In Podcast, LLC

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg

9,973 Listeners

Stock Trading for Beginners by Tyler Stokes

Stock Trading for Beginners

64 Listeners

Words of Rizdom - Trading Podcast by Riz Iqbal

Words of Rizdom - Trading Podcast

30 Listeners