Salvaging a Bad Trade?

 How is that one is supposed to get out of a bad trade? Well...don't double down to change your average price, this is just increasing risk in a trade that has already gone awry. It'd be like putting salt on a wound and expecting no pain.  Let's say you are all in. there are no funds with which to double down. The best answer would be hopefully you have a stop in and it gets hit and you are out with your expected loss. But again we're saying it is a bad trade. So does that imply we have no stop? Probably. I think the first thing would be to determine a stop since you are supposed to do that before you get in the trade in the first place. I guess having a stop put in later rather than never is better. Maybe give yourself a timeframe for the trade to start working. I've done that before where, I said if it starts moving in my direction and gets to Xprice then I'll stay in and set a new target moving my stop down (mind you this is a losing trade. A loss needs to be accepted at some point - usually before the trade begins). If it get to the target in the time, I stay in, if not I'm out.  This is just an idea. Sometimes, it may be the next pull back - having already put in a final stop.  OR what seems to end up being the best choice most of the time, is realizing you didn't have a stop or it moved against where you had a mental stop and exiting immediately because losses for some reason don't seem to shrink so well. What I think is important to remember is that often times prices may move back to your original position or even to a place where you would have been profitable in that initial position. BUT it was most likely a DIFFERENT setup/trade that got it there and the initial trade was broken. It must be remembered that when a trade breaks you get out and try another trade. Sometimes it can be in the exact same place. I remember this one specific trade where I saw a level and thought if price breaks this level it could really go. It slightly broke so I gave it a shot with a close stop. I got stopped out. It then proceeded to try the break again - so did I. I got stopped out. And then a Third time only this time it the level broke and did not look back. Being persistent with small losses can be ok. Don't try a range break and keep stopping out at the opposite side of the range - lol. I think the point is - get the point eventually and keep the losses small. What I've found is that if you keep your losses small even your regular trades (not quite amazing ones) make up for them. And then when a good trade happens you can really let it work for you. I think one of the biggest things that I've learned about myself is that I am much more patient when I have a good entry point. That means that my risk is very well defined - there is a solid identifiable level which would signify that I am wrong and I am pretty close to that level.  When I get in to early and the stop that I have identified is far away, I will tend to fade into the position where as being patient would have been better. Fading into a position can end up giving you a suboptimal position price and this has caused me to be quicker to get out when I see my position go positive. I hope that makes sense. I imagine if you've faded a trade then you know what it is like to have the price get back to your initial entry where you can get out with no washing. What do you do if a trade goes bad and a stop was forgotten(?)? Ok that's plenty for today. Have a great day or night wherever you are. Cheers!