Newbie portfolio123 user here with real money invested trying to avoid unnecessary loss. I’ve been reading past forum posts and have been experimenting with 123 and community sims. Learning on the fly as I manage my meager portfolio. I understand the concept behind PctFromHi. However, I can’t seem to find a stop loss rule that will trigger at a percentage loss amount below my original buy price. Seeking advice from any 123 guru. Thanks in advance for your help.
For a 10% stop loss put this in a Sell rule:
GainPct < -10
Thanks for the help, Marco.
I had a simulation model with a stop loss Selling rule :- GainPct <= -3 for
the intention of taking a stop loss if the stocks plunge more than or equal to 3 percent of the price bought.
Despite testing again and again, some trade positions taken over the years had given a -10% and even one which result more than -20% loss.
Am i missing something ?
Appreciate your help. Thanks.
Palden,
Since the Sims are only rebalanced weekly at the Fridays close price, any stock that falls more than your GainPct <= -3 Sell Rule will be sold at the Friday close price. The Sims does not check the prices during the week.
If you have a Port with this rule you can manually rebalance daily and if a stock closes below the sell Rule % it will be sold and you will get a recommendation for the next stock to buy.
There is a Feature Request to change the Sims to be able to use the stop loss value in the Sell Rules instead of the Friday’s close price. This would better simulate real Portfolios that use a trailing stop loss order on all stocks purchased.
You should vote for this Feature Request here!
http://www.portfolio123.com/feature_request.jsp?poll=43
Denny 
I tend to agree with the selling on rebalacing period. I can think of no other explanation other than that the re balancing is done on a ‘regular time interval’.
This is evident from the Realized P/L page that most if not all trades’ holding period are in multiples of 7 or +/- 1 day ( due to a holiday or non-trading day ? )
Thanks Denny. And for the momentum value ranking system, research and simulation too.
Great work!
All
There is a similar feature request I submitted 5/31 (Trailing Stop - a Better PctFromHi) - vote for that and avoid diluting the vote!!
It is an essential change IMHO
Lindsay
But then again, if selling rules are activated only on weekly Friday close prices, then i would think the 2 selling rules are the same in the case of the simulations :-
PctFromHi and GainPCT since both are only activated once on closed prices. (please correct me if i’m wrong)
But when i re-run the simulations with and without PCTfromHi at the same percentage with GainPCT, they return different results.
Anyone care to advise ?
Thanks.
Palden,
My suggestion was to use , in Sims, a “ficticious” selling price based on the specified PctFromHi. For example, if a PctFromHi of -20% was triggered for a stock whose hi was $25.00, set the closing price at $20.00 ($25.00 X 80%) irrespective of how low the actual Friday close was. Not perfect but an improvement.
As Vad noted, it’s not rally an issue with Ports as you can if you wish do a daily rebalance and trigger the sell during the week.
Cheers
lindsay
Thanks lindsay.
Yes, i could balance the portfolio whenever i want. Though i suspect that such portfolio results would differ, to the extend ir might defeats the purpose of the simulation ? ( knowing how unforgiving the small changes in numbers can be )
And i found that as for selling being activated on Friday closing prices only ,
both PctFromHi and GainPCT yield diifferent results.
wonder why, hmmm…
Palden,
PctFromHi and GainPct are two different things.
PctFromHi is the percent retracement from the highest price since you’ve owned the stock.
GainPct is the percent gain that you currently have.
So, for example, if you bought a stock at $20, and it went to $30, then it dropped back to $27, the PctFromHi would be -10%, but your Gain Pct is 35%.
Brian
Palden,
GainPct is the Return of an existing position in %. In other words, if you have a GainPct < -10 sell rule, and you buy a stock at $10 and it goes down 11% it will be sold. However, if the stock goes up to $30, and then goes down to $15 (a loss of 50% from the high) the stock will not be sold since it is still up 50% from the price that you purchased it.
PctFromHi is the percentage from highest close since the position started. This is a trailing factor. In other words, if you have a PctFromHi < 10 Sell Rule, and buy a $10 stock and it goes up to a $30 close, and then it goes down to a $26 close, it will be sold. It has dropped more than 10% from the high since you bought it.
If your $10 stock drops and closes below $8.99 before it goes up, both Sell Rules will sell it. Therefore, the only time to use the GainPct rule is if you want a stop loss below the purchase price, but you do not want a trailing stop loss. Otherwise, use the PctFromHi rule.
Denny
Edit: Sorry Brian, I didn’t notice you had already answered this on the 2nd page!
Thank you, Brian and Denny for the examples.
Great Supportive Group!
‘Momentum with Value’ Approach ?
[;)]