Small Losses, Massive Profits: A Stock Trading Strategy

Are you one to throw caution to the wind, or do you cut your losses short

, and let your profits run? It may surprise you to realize that while many traders think they cut their losses short, and let their profits run, there is a simple technique that will allow them greatly amplify those profits, while keeping their losses manageable. This technique is known as pyramiding your profits.

The art of pyramiding your profits begins with good risk management. You should risk no more then 5% of your portfolio on any given trade, and many experienced traders use numbers as low as 2-3%. This doesn't mean someone with a $50000 portfolio can only invest in $2500 worth of a companies stock, it means that when they are setting their stop loss, they must be cognizant of how much they can lose on the trade.

This can be easily demonstrated with an example. Let us say we have company XYZ trading at $20. There's strong support at $18, so we set a stop loss for 17.50. This means we have a potential $2.50 loss per share. If we are risking $2500, and can lose up to 2.50 per share on this one, 1000 shares should be our maximum position size.

Now lets say the stock then moves to 22.50, and you move your stop loss to $21. At this point, you've looked in $1000 in gains. To pyramid your profits, you then add shares to the position based on the profit made so far. At this point, you have made $1000 in gains, and your risk amount was $2500. Add these numbers together, and then divide by the difference between the current stock price, and the stop loss to get the number of shares you should add to the position. So 1000+2500=3500/1.50=2300 shares. By doing this, you greatly increase how much you make if it continues to go up, while still keeping losses minimal should it go against you.

Now lets analyze your position for a second. You bought 1000 shares at 20, and 2300 at 22.50. If it goes to 25, then you made $5000 on the original 1000 shares, and another $5750 on the second set of 2300 shares. If it goes down to your stop at 21, then you made $1000 on the original 1000 shares, and lost $3450 on the second set of $2300 shares, for an overall loss of $2450 (about the same as the risk you were willing to take on). The same idea can be applied to shorting stock as well. Just remember " add to your position as you become profitable, but keep your maximum loss relatively constant factoring in the unrealized gains.

This strategy is useful both for long term investors, and for shorter term traders. Long term investors can use this to scale into upwards trending stocks to safely generate massive profits, while shorter term investors can use this strategy to minimize risk, while maximizing their overall gains.

The interesting thing about this strategy is while its almost the opposite of some conventional wisdom " you never go broke taking a profit " it does strongly adhere to the idea of cutting losses short and letting profits run. The key is to do more of whats working, and less of what isn't, and that's exactly what this kind of trade accomplishes.

The art of pyramiding your profits is essential to long term success in the stock market. They say that even some of the best traders are only right 50%, 40%, sometimes even only 30% of the time, but as that example showed, by pyramiding your profits, your gains will far outweigh the small losses you occasionally take.

by: Jordan Weir

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