Do commodities vary in the short term?

I'd like to ask a question of people who are successfully trading short term systems (< 3 days hold time). Do you believe that different commodities exhibit different characteristics in the short run? In particular, I'd be interested to hear if anyone has been successful (in real trading) with short term systems that work well with one commodity (or group of related commodities), but break-down when applied to a broader basket?

A related question is, has anyone improved their system's performance (in real trading, not backtesting) by applying non-symmetric rules to the long and the short sides?

-bbc

 

I am a newbie, mostly into stocks too, but this thread sounds interesting. Could you elaborate a bit for someone that is more naive? What do you mean by non-symmetric? As in like having the portfolio be biased to the long or short at different times, so not always flat?

 

Symmetric means that the rules for going long are identical to the rules for going short. Asymmetrical would vary the rules from the long and short side.

nitro

 

Markets fall faster than they rise.

 

Aloha, blueberrycake >Volatility appears to be different to me when you change time horizons. I trade –long term but its all relative. Elliot wave is the same.

Symmetrical rules.

When I traded Gold futures my exits were different than my entrances. But my entrances were the same long or short. Short falls faster.

With Spreads we just make the chart showing the long contract first, short second. So, entrances are exactly the same bull spreads or Bear.