Investology

Controlling Investment Losses

For many investors and traders, it is not just about making profits and gains that they should try to know and learn about. It is also important that traders and investors know what to do in case impending losses come. It is a more important lesson to learn than trying to capture profits and gains. Being able to control investment losses is something that any experienced investor and trader should know.

In an unpredictable market, it is always important to prepare for different situations. How to handle losses on investments and trades is just one of them. It is important to note that investors may experience potential losses more than they will gain or profit from their investments. It is trying to have a rational approach to handling the losses that will matter the most. In any case, it is important that investors need to prepare a profit/loss plan.

Profit/Loss Plan

A profit/loss plan is something that wise and experienced investors need to prepare. Unfortunately, a lot of investors and even professionals fail to prepare such an important element of investing or trading. It is designed to minimize the damage caused by investment losses before they get worse.

Almost all investors and traders have experienced making bad choices when it comes to the market, they may have gone into trades and investments that turn out to be a bad position that results in a loss. For some people, it ends there. But for the savvy investors, it is all about trying to control or minimize the losses that matters and trying to make up for them later. This is where a profit/loss plan becomes important.

Plan Purpose

A profit/loss plan is a plan that aims to set limits to maximum gains or loss that an investor may take on a particular stock. This plan is crucial to having a sound investing strategy. Too bad that not many investors put their time in trying to prepare one.

A profit/loss plan sets maximum limits to how high or how low the value of a certain investment pick can go before they act to sell their position. Some inexperienced investor may think that such a plan will only limit the potential gains that an investment can make. But it is for this very purpose that the maximum profit limits are set before they tumble down.

Some may also think that setting limits on the loss of a certain investment may prevent them from trying to ride out the worst and wait for its value to bounce back and recoup the losses. But in reality, trying to hold on to a losing position with the hopes of prices climbing back up does not always happen. Most of the time, it only gives investors false hopes that results in steep losses that they sometimes can no longer afford. In both cases, it is better to always have a profit/loss plan ready.

Preparing The Plan

One of the main reasons that probably may have prevented investors from preparing a profit/loss plan is that it is a challenge to determine the set limits for profits or losses for each choice investment. Each investment may have a different profit/loss plan depending on its current and future activity or performance. One plan may not apply to another investment. Some investors may find it too time consuming to prepare and the research that it takes to get accurate data and considering the different factors that may affect prices of the different investments. The important thing here is that appropriate limits for gains and losses should be set. There are other simpler ways to devise a profit/loss plan such as modeling it after a particular index or from past performance of a certain investment portfolio. With experience, you may be able to devise more accurate profit/loss plans for your investments to help safeguard your overall position in the market.
Investing – GuideTo.Com

Tags: Controlling, Investment, Losses