The personal, codified rules that govern every trade at Trade2Swing. Each rule is born from a specific experience — a trade that hurt, a lesson that could not be forgotten. Rules here are terse for reference; the Model Book entries linked from each rule tell the story of how the rule came to be.
A rule earns a place here only after the market has made the case for it — usually in the form of a specific trade that went wrong for a specific reason. Every rule below has an origin case in the Model Book. The story teaches; the spec references. Both matter. Neither works alone.
Applies to every lot — position trading or swing trading, no exceptions. Each lot runs the protocol independently under the Lot-Independence Rule: no blended cost basis, no P&L netting across lots. B1 (pilot), B2 (first follow-on), B3 (second follow-on) are each independent sell-rule subjects.
The moment any lot is opened, a working GTC stop-loss order is placed at the broker. This is the first action after the fill — before news is checked, before any other position is looked at.
| Trade type | Initial hard stop |
|---|---|
| Swing | −2.5% or low of entry day (whichever fits the setup) |
| Position | −5% |
| Tiny position (worst case only) | −10% |
Non-negotiable. The stop must be a working broker order (GTC). Never a mental level. A lot in state OPEN with no working stop = rule violation — flagged immediately, even if the trade is profitable.
Absolute override. Any normal-size lot at more than 8% loss with no exit = emergency exit, no questions asked (SR#99 — the INSANE rule).
As soon as the lot shows a profit, ratchet the stop up only, never down.
Ratchet rule. Stop orders may only move up. Any downward stop modification is a discipline violation and gets logged. There is no scenario where a stop legally moves lower on a live lot.
Percentages are of the original lot size, not the current holding. TML CORE B1 lots are exempt from this ladder — see below.
| Trigger | Action |
|---|---|
| +20% profit | Sell 25% |
| Daily close below 8-day MA | Sell 25% |
| Daily close below 21-day MA | Sell 50% |
| Price falls to ~+2% above buy (catch-all floor) | Sell all remaining |
The +2% floor is the guarantee. If partial sells were loose or the triggers didn't sum to 100%, whatever remains is sold at the floor. A round trip must be structurally impossible, not just discouraged.
Only a TML CORE B1 (pilot) lot on a qualified True Market Leader is exempt from the offensive ladder. It is held long per TML core-hold rules, trailed at the rising 10-week MA.
OPEN until a stop order is confirmed at the broker.Every codified rule earns its place through a specific incident, not from theory. The next rules in the queue — sizing rules, add-on rules, TML qualification criteria, sell-signal precedence — will land here as they're codified, each with its own origin case in the Model Book.
Personal rules, not financial advice. These are the specific rules the author of Trade2Swing follows in his own trading. They are shared for study and transparency. They are not investment advice, not a recommendation for any reader to adopt them verbatim, and not a guarantee of any result. Read them, learn from them, adapt them to your own risk framework — and always do your own due diligence.