Stretched‐pulse additive pulse mode‐locked fiber lasers use fibers with opposite signs of group velocity dispersion to introduce large changes of pulse width per pass and avoid excessive nonlinearity. We have investigated these intracavity pulse dynamics. Optimal points for output coupling and for the placement of the artificial absorber element in the cavity are determined for a fiber ring laser. The dispersion balance is important for the generation of clean sub‐100 fs pulses, but the net cavity length is found to be relatively uncritical. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.