i have been pretty quite on this subject cause i have been trying to understand scale trading as opposed to what i do. i have mechanical models which i do scale trade. how it works is using gambling theory i leverage into and out of positions. if i have a bond model which i know wins 60% of the time and i know that the average trade whether its a looser or a winner will at some time become 750.00 profitable. then i will take off some contracts there at that profit level. now the scale part - if i have 3 losers in a row i start trading twice as many contracts and i keep doubling the number of contracts until the model starts winning. then i reset all trade size back to the original sizes i was trading in the first place. in this respect i am a scale trader. i also scale out of loosing positions so as i am loosing more and more i am trading less and less size. it has been very profitable form me however every now and then my flipping orders gets me screwed up and i make big mistakes which cost me big money. that's the only danger i see, if you have a statically stable model that you believe in thats is. mb
Exactly my point. If you are a statistical trader then you have to use whatever you can. The gambling reference makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. If I had to trade with that hanging over my head I would go back to corporate. Traders have edges based on a vast variety of mindsets. Whatever floats their boat I guess. I learned many years ago that I prefer to eliminate stress in my trades or investments, makes less trades or decisions, win & profit more consistently and have more free time for family and friends.
I think the best solution is to do both at the same time. take one set of positions in order to scale in and the other one to scale out. This way it seems that you have all bases covered. If it only moves in your direction a bit at least you got out with partial profits. if the market runs in your direction keep scaling in.. What's wrong with this idea?
Nobody can read price to tell them exactly where to get out of a position unless you get a reversing signal. You can hope for an objective but no way of knowing beforehand if objective will be met. so if not sure hedge your bet.
I guess you always get out of your profitable positions at the most profitable point. That seems what you are implying. Come on!!
No, I only trade when the market is giving me ultraconservative reasons to enter or exit. I never catch dead tops, never catch dead bottoms but ALWAYS catch a nice chunk of the meat in between.
==================== And some of the best, available free; or in most libraries-3 top traders books by Jack Schwager. I am re - reading them again,excellant, excellant; & usually do every year. Great story there about coffee trader who ''knew the ministers, knew more about coffee fundamentals than perhaps anyone else''; blew out 100 million, did not respect risk, Mr Hite said........... Chapter named ''respecting risk''