I may regret it, but we closed out our position in market leader $NVDA today for a 9R profit. As a swing trade, it was a home run. Still one of the strongest stocks in the market technically and fundamentally. Short term extended, so I decided to hit the bid and take a decent gain. I like to get out when the getting is good. It usually means selling early, but it also prevents getting caught in a slide and giving back a large portion of your profit.

My take is... have you looked at the stocks that imploded that the stop saved you from? When you take an insurance policy, you lose on money the premium every month... it's a loser UNTIL you need to make a big claim from a disaster! Taking losses... that's the whole point.

Rules I built a 38-year career on... 1. always use a stop loss 2. define your stop before you enter 3. never risk more than you expect to gain 4. nail down decent profits 5. never let a good size gain turn into a loss 6. never average down 7. never get bold when running cold

I've missed index rallies being in cash and made fortunes in individual stocks while the indexes moved sideways. I could care less what the indexes are doing, I'm focused on stocks that meet my criteria. When stock setups are plentiful, I'm in, when there's few, I'm in cash.