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I would probably scrap Strategy #1, because there is a 99% chance they wouldn't let you trade it Live. It is overnight trading and my understanding is that they probably only let very senior traders to do that, if at all. It also doesn't give too much to your bottom line, so unless you just want to test it (but you already did that) there is no point in running it.
Also you could go over the other strategies and see if they somehow violate their rules (or rather preferences), like averaging down for example. Again, averaging down is a viable strategy if used in a restricted way, but they wouldn't let you trade that way Live, so there is really no point in using such an approach in a Combine...
Good luck on your next combine!
Will you be trading 6-10 contracts per strategy or 6-10 contracts total anytime of the day?
In other words it was not clear to me if multiple strategies could have working orders at the same time...
Good points. No averaging down for me, so that is not an issue. After I developed strat #1, I found out that overnight trading is discouraged, except for senior traders. The primary purpose of strat #1 is to improve the overall winning percentage, so if in later stages I can't trade it, that will be OK. My winning percentage will just go down, and maybe profit will decrease a bit.
Thanks for asking. For strats 1-3, they are all basically traded at different times, with no overlap. So each trade will be 6-10 contracts. The tricky part will be when I add in strat #4, which trades same time as strat #2. I probably will treat them as independent trades (and size them accordingly), but I will have to keep a close eye on the Daily Loss Limit. Some of the details will therefore be decided in real time.
Since I started Combine #2 tonight, after this post I will only be posting those results.
So, here is the final chart for Combine #1 (thru trading day 20), and the month or so since then (up to June 15, 2013).
I will still be tracking this for my own benefit, since I may trade these with real money soon.
For what it is worth, if I had to decide today whether or not to trade these with real money, I'd probably say "not yet," even with the excellent recent performance. Why? Well, for the first 25 days, the combined strategies underperformed my expectations by quite a bit, and for the past 10 trade days, those same strategies have radically out performed expectations. I don't like trading based on extreme behavior like this - I'd like to see it more closely mimic the navy blue "average" line.
So, I'll give it more time, and see what happens...
It is always good to start a Combine with a positive day.
Needless to say, I started Combine #2 with a negative day. Great way to start!
I also had a couple of trade entry/exit issues, so I did a little worse than I should have.
With only about $2,500 left before the max drawdown is hit, I will be trading only 3-4 contracts for the next few trades, until (and if) I get some cushion.