can the big boys see the stop losses, page-12

Just to clarify one point:

AUTOMATIC stop losses can - and must - be seen by the system that is operating them. So, whether it's CommSec or your CFD provider - the system "knows' exactly where your stops are, since you've told them when you set them.

On the other hand, the stop losses you keep in your head, or just mark on your own charts, is NOT seen by anyone other than you. The main problem with those stops is that most people don't have the discipline to act on them when they're triggered.

And then, of course, there are those stops that conform to something fairly obvious on the charts - support, resistance, pricing in round numbers (eg dollar and dollar-fifty levels), etc etc. Most prop trading desks can have a pretty good guess where all the psychological levels are for stops. They can't actually "see" them, but they know that if they take the price down tick by tick to just through those "obvious" levels, they will trigger a large number of stops.

Stop losses are essential for traders - but I would NEVER use automatic stops. On the other hand, for longer term investors, it is quite acceptable to have no stops set. In fact, it may be better strategy to buy more on each significant dip - as long as the buy price is HIGHER than your current average. In other words, use to dips to average UP into a stock and get more shares. Lower share price in the short term, and a higher average buy price - but bigger holding.