When I started share trading about 2.5 years ago I had convinced myself that averaging down could get you out of trouble if a share you had purchased fell in price , on the belief that things would correct and you would soon be back in the money
HOW WRONG I WAS , all I did (by averaging down 3 to 5 times ) was dig myself into a deeper and deeper hole from which I could not extricate myself
Additionally , I was not at that stage using stop losses --- all in all definitely not a good look that led to several catastrophic losses

The above scenario is , I believe , not uncommon with those new to the game and it is they that I direct my comments to (those that have suffered the expensive knocks will know what I am talking about and will have their own particular techniques sorted )

My solution , learned the hard way , is to allow myself only one purchase at a lesser price than my first one and then only after having re satisfied myself that the particular share is underpriced and still a good buy
Stop loss orders should also be placed to protect against those price collapses that can and sometimes do occur
If I cannot satisfy myself that a second purchase is warranted then I take an early exit at a relatively small loss and move on to greener pastures

From my experience you do not need to make up your losses on the same shares as you incurred them on --- it is much better to move on and look for new opportunities of which there are always some , maybe a bit hard to find but they are always there
It is unquestionably much more rewarding and profitable to chase winners rather than losers

I will be interested in hearing from others who have successfully adopted a different strategy to me , I do not claim mine to be the only one --- it just happens to work pretty well for me