Planning Trades To Control Risk

The problem with many traders is, they only have half a plan, the easy half. They know how much profit they're willing to take, but they don't have the foggiest idea how much they're willing to lose. They're like a deer in the headlights, they just freeze and wait to get run over. Their plan for a position that goes south is, 'Please God, let me out of this and I'll never do it again,' but that's wishful thinking, because if by chance the position turns around, they'll soon forget about God. They'll go back to thinking that they're geniuses, and they'll always do it again, which means that they're sure to get caught, and get caught bad.

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