Everyone knows the consumer is weak. That's the problem.

Friday made it official. Michigan sentiment came in at 51.0 against 55.0 expected, current conditions printed 51.8, and July retail sales growth slowed to 5.2% year over year from 8.5% the month before.

Next week the consumer complex reports into that. Home Depot Tuesday, Target and TJX Wednesday, Walmart and Ross Thursday, BJ's Friday.

So you have a view, and so does everyone else reading this, which means the view is already sitting in the price. The number itself barely matters now. What matters is the reaction to it, and nobody gets to know that in advance.

Then there's the timing. That's what actually takes money out of accounts. Most of those names report before the open. The news breaks while the exchange is shut, the stock reprices without you, and whatever you were holding is worth something different by 9:30 the next morning.

A stop-loss will not help you there. A stop is an instruction to sell at the next available price, and the next available price is wherever the stock decides to open.

The industry handed you the stop and called it protection. It isn't protection. It's a request.

Real protection gets built into the position before you enter, and it holds overnight whether you're watching or asleep.

The 5 checks that hold when a stock gaps overnight

To your success,
Don Kaufman