Hope is a much maligned state of mind among traders. Fear and Greed are familiar villains but they are part of market lore and, when you get right down to it, without these evil twins (or twin evils), there would be no trading. But hope...conjures images of the clueless investor who gets in a position for all the wrong reasons (a tip, a misguided hunch, because he "likes the company" or because "the move is way overdone") and then starts hoping if not praying if he or she is so inclined. As my not-so-old trading mentor used to tell me: "when you start hoping, it's time to get out".
However, there is something to be said for a trading version of the old adage: "prepare for the worst and hope for the best". If your reasons for establishing a position are technically sound, if you have done your due diligence and most important, if you're emotionally secure with your position size(i.e. you didn't bet the house), who's to say that a little hoping would do any harm? After all, hope is what keeps us going, isn't it?