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If you've been following along in this thread you see that my system is not a day trading system. No indeed. If I tried something like this with day trading I'd get killed. What I use is a very simple price-driven method designed to catch multi-day trends. I like this setup because it's simple, it's really good at catching the big moves, and it allows me to not be glued to the screen all day. I have a regular job that often requires me to be away from the computer for hours at a time, so having a system that can accomodate that is important. I make probably an average of three trades per week, per market. Obviously the less trades the better, because that means instead of looking for entries I'm riding trends and making profit. This also cuts down on fees.
The system does not give me a huge advantage. I think the best system will give you maybe a slight advantage. Like any trading method, its power lies in the consistent, disciplined application of the method, and that is the user's responsibility.
My system certainly has its ugly periods, but when it works it really works. I've never tried to calculate the percentage of "winners" it gives me. That doesn't matter. What matters is how much you win. Or rather, how much your average win is over your average loss.
I have a couple of 90-10 rules in my trading. One, I figure about 90% of the time nothing is happening and you're not making any money. That's the life of a trader. Perhaps the number is smaller, but not much. The other 10% of the time is when the money's coming in. The other 90-10 rule, and it goes hand-in-hand with the first one, is that I figure 90% of my profits come from 10% of my trades.
When you think about it like that, you realize you've got to take every signal. You never know which one is going to be the big fish. It took me a lot of frustration and missed opportunities to realize this. On any given month, it could very well be just one trade that makes all the difference for that month.
One trade. That's it.
So, you've got to take them all. And this is why I trade only a couple markets. I have to watch them the way a hawk watches the ground he's flying over, looking for a mouse to catch. My trading education continues, and I wish everyone success and health in their trading and non-trading lives. Keep the faith.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Soybeans are up sharply at the open this morning. You got to love the beans sometimes. They're so volatile, so unpredictable. Overnight it got within about a penny of hitting my stop, then at 9:30 they zoom up.
Soybeans and mini S&P are up this morning, allowing me to move my stop on both to break even.
March soybeans. Again, for every 10 cents of profit I move my stop. With a 1215 entry my stop was originally 1205. When the market hit 1225 this morning, my stop goes to 1215.
Same thing on the S&P. 1320 entry with a 1310 stop, then when the market hit 1330 this morning the stop gets moved to 1320.
What you see above requires patience. (Reminds me of the movie Heaven Help Us..."and this, Mr. Dunn, is Patience.") I had to wait two days to move my stop. I'll admit, with both trades I thought about just getting out because I felt like they were going nowhere. But I reminded myself that the trend was up and to just hang in there. Besides, the worst that could happen would be a 10-point loss.
This was a good week. Two profitable trades which I'm still in, and those two are the only two trades I made this week. To me the fewer trades made, the better.
Slow day today. ES and soybeans still in there but not a lot going on. Soybeans broke above 1240 for a little bit but then retreated. Mini s&p has been hovering just below 1340 all day. Volume's under a million. Slow indeed. Super Bowl hangover?
Here's a trend following website that I read daily: www.myinvestorsplace.com. I've learned a lot about trading psychology from this guy.
Stopped out on soybeans overnight for a 15-cent profit. Entered 1215, trailing stop hit 1230. Now I'm looking at buying at 1240 or selling at 1220, whichever one gets the signal. Still waiting to see if ES can clear 1340.
The soybeans rallied overnight and I moved into a long position at 1240 with a protective stop at 1230. There's a crop report coming out tomorrow. It's not a major one so the chance of the market gapping down 40 cents or something crazy is not that great, so I may keep this position open going into the report provided I don't get stopped out first.