When to stop?

[ssdex]

So i've been doing a lot of thinking lately about stop/losses and about when it is right to quit your session even if your way up.

I have always had a 5 buyin stop loss-- meaning I will stop until I have reviewed why i've dropped 5 buyins in a session. After review, if I've been playing B game or better and just running bad, i keep playing, if not I just quit altogether I play really long sessions, usually 3-5k hands. Mostly because I can only play 3-4 days a week.

I think I have lost a ton of $ because I can't seem to know when to quit when i'm way up. When im running good or on a heater I think its going to keep going up and never quit. The problem is I usually drop a buyin or two towards the end of these and theeeen decide to quit. Im sure over my poker career this has cost me a lot of $. How do you all avoid this problem? How do you know when its time to quit a heater and what kind of stop losses do you put on your sessions?

thanks
-dex