and if your worried about catastrophic losses...the market has circuit breakers.

cramers strategy is not for the faint of heart, if you figured out how he picks
em, what his investing timeframe is...then you have to love pain. p.s. jimbo
likes to pick em a bit earlier than he should (usually about 2 months too
early). but that's what i got out of his AAport in 2006-2008. i've never used
stop losses but i don't ever have a full position and i never pay up for
something i already own. i only buy a significant dip.

I use stops on most of my holdings

then u may want to use a big spread on that stop

we r not going to get a huge pullback at least for the rest of the year.2010 is
a different story. but useing stops will protect u,even if u r a long term
investor,unless u beleive the stock u own is cheap and would buy more today

ALWAYS. there are three things you can control in the market, position size,
when you get in, and where you get out if youre wrong (stoploss). thats
basically it.

if youre 'buying the dips' as they say, you can still use a stoploss. if you
used to buy all at once and put a 10% stoploss, and are now buying in
incraments; you can buy first position, and use a 20% stoploss. same risk
management until you add your second position.

i dont know of any other way to consistantly win at this game than with money
management.

this is really going to depend on your trading strategy. the main drawback in a
volatile market (which lately has increased) is getting whipsawed out of a
position. (happened to me with fcx this spring) i guess a general answer is,
yes, at some point you have to have an exit point. i usually look at the stocks
atr and maybe go 2x that.