sell in may and go away?, page-15

I can see the benefit of picking your time to sell out of a capitol loss. Better for me to control the crystalisation of the loss to maximise the taxation benefit. Yes, I didn't plan to have a loss on an investment but unfortunately as the wise say "s... happens" on occaisions. When this happens I don't just sell out and say I've learnt a lesson. I plan my exit, the same way I planned my purchase, to maximise my profits or in this case minimise the pain of the loss.

Yes, I understand the use of stop-loss orders. However I also dislike them as well. They can be some protection of a profitable position if the market turns quickly. But then they may not be quick enough in a market collapse or the tax effect of crystalising the gain at that time may not be opportune. Do you really want to sell out to minimise a real loss in a good stock just because the market has one of its short term wobbles? Then there are the short term engineered down spikes others have referred to in other threads done supposedly to trigger just such stop losses which just cause you to loose!

DKit