The first time a position hit its trailing stop loss in my Power Gauge Report portfolio, I almost didn’t sell. The stock had dropped but “felt” like it was about to bounce. I told myself I’d give it one more week.
I sold anyway because the system said sell. The stock dropped another 15% the following month. That was the day I stopped second-guessing Marc Chaikin’s 30% trailing stop rule and started treating it like gospel.
After four years of following this system, I’ve watched the trailing stop protect me from disasters and lock in gains I would have given back. Here’s exactly how it works and what I’ve learned from real positions.
How the 30% Trailing Stop Works in the Power Gauge Report
The concept is straightforward. When Marc recommends a stock, the system sets a trailing stop loss at 30% below the highest price that stock reaches after the recommendation. As the stock climbs, the stop moves up with it. If the stock drops, the stop stays where it is. It only moves in one direction: up.
The stop loss levels for every position get updated on the Power Gauge Report website every Wednesday. Marc’s team recalculates them based on that week’s closing prices. If a stop gets hit during the week, you’ll get an email alert and a note in the next monthly issue.
There’s one critical rule that tripped me up early on: you only use closing prices to trigger the stop. If a stock dips below the stop intraday but closes above it, you hold. And you never enter your stop as an actual order with your broker. It’s a mental stop. You check the closing price, and if it closed below the stop level, you sell the next trading day.
That “sell the day after” rule matters more than you’d think. It prevents you from getting shaken out by intraday volatility or a flash crash that recovers by the close. Marc’s system is designed for swing trading and position trading, not day trading. The stops reflect that.
Why 30%? (And Why Not Tighter?)
When I first saw “30% trailing stop,” my reaction was that it seemed way too loose. Thirty percent is a big drawdown. Why not 15% or 20%?
After watching the portfolio for four years, I get it now. The Power Gauge system picks stocks with strong institutional momentum and solid fundamentals. These stocks tend to be volatile on the way up. A 15% stop would get triggered constantly by normal price swings, kicking you out of positions that go on to double or triple.
The 30% level is wide enough to absorb routine market volatility (like the August-September 2024 sell-off) without stopping you out of a position that’s in a long-term uptrend. But it’s tight enough to prevent catastrophic losses if the thesis actually breaks.
There’s a balance between protecting capital and staying in winners long enough for them to compound. Too tight and you churn through positions, racking up transaction costs and missing the big moves. Too loose and you ride losers down to nothing. Marc landed on 30% as the sweet spot for the kind of stocks the Power Gauge identifies, and the data from the portfolio supports it.
How the Stop Protects You on the Downside
The most recent example is fresh. On February 12, 2026, a construction and engineering company in the AI Power Picks portfolio hit its trailing stop. The position was closed at a -29.31% loss from its entry price.
That hurts. Nobody likes seeing -29% on a trade. But here’s what the stop prevented: the stock had been deteriorating for weeks. The Expert component in the Power Gauge had already shifted negative before the stop triggered, meaning institutional money was flowing out. Without the stop, I might have held on hoping for a recovery. “It’s a good company, it’ll come back.” That’s the kind of thinking that turns a 29% loss into a 50% loss.
An earlier example from the AI Power Picks portfolio shows the same pattern. A cloud storage company was sold at roughly a -15% loss. Again, not fun. But the stop enforced discipline when my instinct was to hold and hope.
The key insight is that the stop takes the emotion out of selling losers. Most investors hold losing positions too long because selling means admitting you were wrong. The 30% trailing stop doesn’t care about your ego. It follows the math.
How the Stop Locks In Gains on the Upside
This is the part people forget about trailing stops, and it’s honestly more important than the downside protection.
Because the stop only moves up, it ratchets higher as a stock climbs. A cybersecurity stock in the AI Power Picks portfolio is a perfect example. It was recommended and ran up significantly before pulling back. The trailing stop had moved up with the price, so when the pullback happened, the stop triggered at a +70.66% gain.
Read that again. The stop loss locked in a 70% gain. Without it, a subscriber might have held through the pullback thinking “it’ll recover to the highs.” Maybe it would have. Maybe it wouldn’t have. But 70% in the bank is better than 70% on paper that could evaporate.
The banking stock in the main portfolio shows how this works on a longer timeframe. It’s been running since November 2023 and is up over 165%. Marc adjusted it to a hard stop at a specific price floor in July 2025 instead of the standard trailing stop. That floor still leaves massive gains locked in even if the stock has a significant pullback. The position can breathe. But the downside is capped at a level where you’ve already banked more than 80% in profit.
That adjustment from trailing stop to hard stop on the biggest winner tells you something about how Marc manages the portfolio. He’s not running a rigid system. He adapts the rules when a position has gotten so far ahead that the standard 30% trailing stop would give back too much of the gain.
The Exceptions to the 30% Rule
The 30% trailing stop is the default, but Marc adjusts it when circumstances call for it. I’ve seen three types of exceptions during my time as a subscriber:
Hard stops on big winners. Like the banking stock example above. When a position is up 100%+, Marc sometimes switches from a trailing percentage to a fixed price floor. This protects a specific dollar amount of profit rather than a percentage.
Tighter stops on volatile picks. Some of the AI Power Picks have gotten tighter stops because the underlying stocks are more volatile than the main portfolio holdings. Marc doesn’t always publicize the reasoning, but you’ll notice the stop loss percentages vary from the standard 30% on certain positions.
Sell recommendations before the stop triggers. Sometimes Marc recommends selling a position outright even though it hasn’t hit the stop. This happened recently with an automotive supplier. The stock had a big move higher and Marc said to take profits instead of waiting for a potential pullback. That position was closed at +21.75%. The stop was never hit. Marc just saw an opportunity to book gains and moved on.
These exceptions are part of what separates the Power Gauge from a purely mechanical system. There’s human judgment layered on top of the quantitative model. The stops are the safety net, but Marc actively manages around them.
What I’ve Learned About Following the System
Selling losers at -29% feels terrible in the moment and brilliant three months later. Every time I’ve watched a stopped-out position continue falling after I exited, I’ve been grateful for the discipline. The system doesn’t always call the bottom perfectly. Sometimes a stock bounces right after the stop triggers. But over four years and dozens of positions, the stop has saved me far more than it’s cost me.
The hardest part isn’t selling losers. It’s not selling winners too early. When the banking stock was up 80%, I wanted to take profits. When it hit 120%, I really wanted to take profits. It’s now at 165% and the stop still hasn’t triggered. The trailing stop gave me permission to stay in the trade when my instincts were screaming to cash out. That permission to hold is worth the subscription cost by itself.
You have to actually follow the stops. This sounds obvious but it’s where most people fail. I’ve talked to other subscribers who admitted they ignored stops on positions they “believed in.” Those are almost always the stories that end with massive losses. The system works if you work the system. It doesn’t work if you treat the stops as suggestions.
Check your stops weekly, not daily. The stop loss levels update every Wednesday. I check them on Sundays as part of my weekly routine. Checking daily just adds anxiety. If a stop triggers mid-week, you’ll get an email alert. You don’t need to babysit it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a 30% trailing stop loss?
It’s a sell trigger that sits 30% below a stock’s highest closing price. As the stock rises, the stop rises with it. If the stock falls 30% from its peak, you sell the next trading day. In the Power Gauge Report, these levels are recalculated and published every Wednesday. You track them manually rather than entering them as orders with your broker.
Should I enter my trailing stop as an order with my broker?
No. Marc specifically advises against this. The Power Gauge uses closing prices only to trigger stops. If you enter a live stop order, an intraday dip could trigger it even if the stock recovers by the close. Keep it as a mental stop. Check the closing price against the published stop level. Sell the day after if it closes below.
What happens when a stock gets stopped out of the Power Gauge portfolio?
Marc sends an email alert and notes it in the next monthly issue. The position gets closed in the model portfolio. Recently, a construction/engineering company was stopped out at -29.31%. Subscribers get enough notice to act the next trading day. Closed positions are removed from the active portfolio but the gain or loss is documented.
Can I use a tighter stop loss than 30%?
You can, but expect more false exits. The 30% level is calibrated for the types of stocks the Power Gauge identifies, which tend to have meaningful short-term volatility. A 15% or 20% stop would have triggered on the banking stock multiple times during its run to +165%, knocking you out of the biggest winner in the portfolio. If your risk tolerance demands tighter stops, consider smaller position sizes instead.
For my full breakdown of the Power Gauge Report, including current portfolio data and everything in the members area, check out my complete Power Gauge Report review.
Jenna
Affiliate Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to the Power Gauge Report. If you purchase through these links, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. All opinions are based on my actual subscription experience since 2021.