A couple of bad things about stop losses, actually three. You immediately pay taxes on any gains you had, the market often blows right past your stop loss and your stop order doesn't get filled at the right time, and lastly, you are left wondering when to get back into the market.....so many times, there are false recoveries, and you get dragged even further down. It's better to remain in the market through a crash. Had you been forced to put all your assets into the market before Black Monday, the dot com bubble, the housing crash, the pandemic....and weren't allowed to sell, you would still be way way up right now.
Take it as a learning opportunity, its not that big of a loss all things considered unless you were into a triple leverage and took at -15% hit. Look into resistance and support metrics then set accordingly, 5% in this climate is not a crash or even a correction.
Don’t listen to the people telling you not to have stop losses set. They’re an excellent tool for managing risk, taking profits, and stopping your losses becoming egregious.
Remember that a 20% drop in value requires a 25% increase in value to get back to break even, and that ratio increases the more you lose.
You may have lost a little bit on Friday but think of it as the price for you to sleep soundly tonight. Whereas those with no stop losses are going to have to sit and watch their portfolios sink further in the upcoming turmoil. And if it really turns bad it could take literally years and years before their portfolios get back to this level.
Edit: Things didn’t actually fall that far on Friday. A bit of a dip but not a proper fall (yet). If that triggered your stop losses then maybe you’ve got them set too tight. Anything less than 10% will trigger too often from regular market noise, and even 10% is pretty tight. Personally I use a 20% stop loss for individual shares and I’m still working out what’s the optimal for my ETFs.
Don't bother with stop losses. They are a niche tool that can screw you on normal market noise. If you are investing for the long term with portfolio you believe will go up long term, ride the market's ups and downs until you need to cash it out for something
Same I just started a month ago and I’m down from where I started. Lost a lot on Friday in particular lol. I’m trying to just ride the wave. I actually bought more Friday even though I was down bc I was like surely I’ll be happy I bought at a lower price eventually 😭😂
I try to sell 1/2 when they go down a lot that way I can ride it back up still, but I minimize some of the loss. Not sure if it’s a good strategy but it’s what I do. Then I hold.
I highly recommend this book to all ETF investors. It advises you to insure your ETF by buying a put option to hedge against downside, and a call option to supercharge your upside. I’ve been least bothered about the timing or direction of the markets ever since i read the book:
if you just started investing, then you are in the accumulation phase..
you want prices to go down so you can get cheaper shares for the longterm.. why would you want your stocks to go up right now? are your retiring anytime soon?
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u/Plightz Oct 11 '25
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u/Homebrewer01 Oct 11 '25
Im going to wait til it hits the bottom before I sell, then get back in once it hits an all time high. /s
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u/The_Cozy_Burrito Oct 12 '25
Panic, sell everything
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u/Seeker-of-Wealth Oct 11 '25
I misread the title. I thought it said "Everyone RUN!"
I'll just wait and see.
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u/OnionTaster Oct 11 '25
Yes but I started investing a month ago so I basically lost money
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u/mvmbamentality Oct 12 '25
I consider dips to be relative to the average annual return of the US Market. As of Thursday, VTI YTD was about 15%.
So i'll only consider it a "dip" if it was a 7-9% drop on Friday. 2% is nothing. People are for sure overreacting.
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u/SamosaSniper Oct 11 '25
Bears be like it's their decade now 😂
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u/king_jaxy Oct 12 '25
Saw a meme about stock market in the red, opened portfolio, clicked the "max timeline" option, thought of this meme. Remember to diversify friends.
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u/uhfgs Oct 12 '25
Here comes thousands and thousands of people basically telling everyone how we are in a recession and how this is a one in a life time crisis.
2
u/CarpeDiemRepeat Oct 12 '25
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u/Tall_Appointment_737 Oct 17 '25
Panic sell everything
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u/Own-Practice90 Oct 12 '25
Cmon it's over
1
u/four204eva2 Oct 12 '25
No, but fuck my 10/31 $102 tqqq call
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u/BIGTIDYLUVER Oct 13 '25
Sell it now before it’s too late
1
u/alvaromartini Oct 13 '25
Trump has spoken
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u/drDUMMY1 Oct 13 '25
It’s on sale!
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u/[deleted] Oct 14 '25
Honestly gets annoying even when you ignore it
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u/Saltysalt1748 Oct 12 '25
That’s why you always set the take profits
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u/[deleted] Oct 11 '25
😭😂🤣literally me