I think that the problem is
Posters like me should not be on this thread because, although I used to be a longterm trader, I am not now, at present anyway. This could detract longterm traders from doing what they wanted to do in the first place.
As Andy, rightly, says, as soon as the market trends, which is what all have been waiting for, there seems to be a general anxiety to get the most out of the seconday tops and bottoms that appear.
This means that, once having left the trade, there is a reluctance to get back in, just in case they are too late and could lose some of their hard earned profits.
Perhaps, it would be better to have a buy/ take profits and not take any short trades at all.
Jon will remember how I, last year, I kept insisting that the upswings were pullbacks in a downtrend and that they were to be shorted-
Now, the trend has reversed and I seem to have lost my way a bit, to the detriment of my trading procedure.