Sometimes buying high and selling low is the best choice you can make. Analysis of signals is all well and good, but no one can 100% reliably predict the future. I use a trading dashboard with 5 EMAs tracking the trends, as well as MACD and parabolic SAR indicators; this morning I set a limit buy for 3% below the current market price, which seemed like a safe target for the bottom of a bear run based on the trends. It turned out not to be; luckily I was around while it was happening and was able to make the judgment call to sell a further 1.5% down. In the hour since this happened, I've traded the swings and turned my 1.5% loss into a 1% profit; had I held on, I would now be down 4% pending further fluctuation. Even if the market recovers, by buying high and selling low I've managed to put myself in a better position to buy in again. Sometimes you just need to recognize that the market has taken you by surprise and cut your losses in order to retain liquidity and take advantage of further price drops. Speaking of which, in the time I was typing this it's down another .5%... it seems like it might well continue. I'll have to see, and regardless I should have the opportunity to buy in again at a lower price than my original sale.