Categorized | Day Trading Strategies

What Exactly is a Protective Stop and How Can it Help Me?

For the masses who are trying to make an actual profit from day trading without losing all of the money in the account it is very important to take the proper precautions when you are investing.  For many, this means looking towards some protective measures to ensure that their account is not suddenly wiped clean.  If you find yourself struggling to protect your finances then you will rapidly discover that you are not alone.  Not only is there an abundance of ways you can lose your money, but there is also an abundance of ways to protect yourself.

With the average sale turning ugly extremely quickly, it is very important to take some time to ensure that you do not lose everything in a single transaction.  While of course there are plenty of benefits in keeping to a budget of much lower than your entire account balance a protective stop order can be your best friend as well.  These orders are typically quite easy and simple to set up, but they are there to help protect you against losing everything.

In the situation that a protective stop order goes into effect, the stocks will be automatically sold once the value reaches a certain amount.  You can create orders for both a rise in value, as well as a decrease.  Creating a protective order to protect you against a sudden decrease in value helps to ensure that your account is not wiped out completely.  Using a stop loss or protective order, you should set the lowest amount that you want to hold the stock at.  For example, if you purchased a stock at $4 per share, and want to sell it at $6, you could also enter a stop loss for $3.50 that would automatically sell your shares if they fall below the $3.50 amount set.

It is important to closely monitor the shape of the stocks though.  There are times when they might tumble much lower but it is best to hold onto them.  If it seems rather obvious that the stock will recover quickly then it is a wise idea to hold onto it.  However, this should only be determined on a case-by-case basis, rather than simply holding all stocks that start to lose their value.  In order to make the best returns on your investment possible you will need to also consider the amount of money that the protective order will cost you.

Because the orders do require an additional fee, they can be expensive for some investors, but the reality is that they are much cheaper to obtain and utilize than allowing all of your money to be wiped out in a single transaction that has gone wrong.  With a proper protection order in place you can rest assured that all of your money would not disappear in the blink of an eye.  Of course, there are always going to be times when your money is at risk; however, the protection of a protective order will allow you to focus more on your investing and less on losing all of your money.  The benefits should be quite obvious to even the newest investor who is looking for assistance.  Never leave your money completely at risk, look to a protection order to ensure successful day trading transactions.

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