Now is the perfect time to reevaluate your triggers and methods in the market. If you do not change how you trade, you may not be trading very long! I have been doing a pile of short term backtesting. Yields some interesting results as far as times of day to trade. Like 6 and 8 am.....3 am if you are up at that hour is dandy. 3:30 pm if you are a late sleeper! Also I find trading less times during the day on better triggers is the key. Up the size and take small bites if you dare. But remember to take small bites......things turn on a dime now. I keep seeing all these whining posts and thought I might give you guys a little leg up. When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping for another method! Cathy
His method has a lot of interesting sidelights. He uses different tactics. Like either going to a 1 minute chart or 60 minute chart. He also fades spikes and gaps. Looks for patterns. Also he says in his column that NOT trading is a position too.
This depends on your system. I am now papertrading an ES system that sticks to the 3 and 6 pt targets or otherwise exits when it reverses. Similar to the Netpicks.com mechanical trading system, in principle, because I am not familar with their system in detail. They have made their targets smaller recently (2.5 and 5 ES pts) but it looks that even despite that they will at best break even this month. At the same time, my system has been up well over $8000 with 2 ES contracts and has also done better than theirs in February. Need more backtesting to see how well it worked in the past, my point here is only that taking smaller bites is not always the best solution. It may work for some systems, but may fail for others.
Cathy, why wouldn't the Chimp Trade work taking 5 point profits as quickly as they appear? And what of ORB? Have you considered this?
That is kind of where I have been lately. Looking at all the smaller incements. The flateness of the days before today seemed to play tricks on that chimp system though. The profits to take have been more like 1/2 a point on it if they are there. Today it worked just fine.
Wally, how often do you trade with that system in a day? I am finding lately that picking better spots is key and trading less often. Do you find that too?