The $500 Experiment

I totally agree with this plan, Orange. I have been using this "small gains" strategy for quite a while. I would not sell out after 10% on every trade, though. One way to factor in losing trades is to set aside money from trades that make, let's say, 30%. If you know what amount you are supposed to be at to stay on track and you lose on a trade, you then draw from that pool to put you back on pace. A working example of this is TDCP from this last week. If I put $1000 in to it on Thursday at .37, the charts gave me absolutely no indication that I should sell at .41 and take my 10%. I knew it was an easy 25-30% gainer. To play it cautiously and still very profitably, I sell at these levels and take my $250-$300 profit. To stay on the plan, I roll $100 into the next play and set the extra aside in anticipation of a losing play somewhere along the way. In theory, the plan is very feasible. In reality, especially when you reach the higher levels with a lot of money involved, it becomes very difficult to pick winner after winner. I highly, highly recommend to anyone that once some larger amounts of cash are made (let's say your $500 has turned into $10,000) that you concede to the idea that it may take extra weeks to become a millionaire, but you pull several thousand out yourself and take the profits and work with what's left. It is a good safety net and brings in our mottos around here of "there's no such thing as a bad profit" and not to get greedy.