RE: You haven't lost a cent Bastone6One of the drawbacks with stop-losses that has not been mentioned is the fact that the players in the market can see the stops. The big players ( funds, MMs, houses and other **#@#$s) can then make a pretty good mathematical calculation of how much they have to sell to start off the first level of stop loss triggers, once on a roll, everyones stop-losses, reduce the price, triggering off others stop-losses, which further reduces the price, etc etc. All they have to do is start the roll-down, then it becomes self accellerating, then they step back in at the bottom and buy up the cheap stock. All the little minnows are swallowed up by a few huge whales and sharks.
If the stock is that important to you - make your decision in a timely fashion, and keep an eye on it daily.
What has also not been mentioned is that there may be very short time intervals where the funds dumping uses up all the buy orders, and the next buy order may be several dollars lower, too bad for your stop loss if the price drops so fast that it gaps down a couple of dollars below your stop loss - you stop will sell - at a much lower price.
Stop losses should be used as part of a calculated mathematical calculation - not as fear insurance.