I think we can all agree that being on both sides of market fluctuations is not the ideal - or optimal. However, if we consider that there is much more involved when trading than just buying and selling - then we might consider if there are some benefits. I do believe that in practice there can be some advantages to looking at trading on various scales - like timeframes, size, risk etc. If you shift your base currency - or even have your base participate in any of the currencies that you are trading - then you are in fact employing a double regime - even if you are conscious of this or not. That is undeniable... There are infinite ways to make a profit, and there are a finite number of known bad strategies. Optimization by taking into regards the real conditions is not a bad thing - and if that involves having your base on one side, while riding some temporary waves then it makes sense... doesn't it? Being net neutral seems very strange, but if there were different timeframe or risk strategies involved - it might just as well work well for that individual doing this. It's not for me... but it might work well for some from time to time, and that is the crucial point. Over time a net neutral trading position will be very bad and unsuccessful, both because it is complicating and keeping the strategies separate is difficult, but they will also influence each other. That is why strict differences in risk, timeframes and size should be central to any strategy.
I think a great deal depends on market conditions, for instance being long and short on Friday would obviously have paid off in the short-term. There are also some profitable grid trading strategies which trade long and short and take advantage of the fact that price rarely moves in one direction indefinitely. I personally wouldn't trade that way, who was it said "the market can remain irrational longer than you can stay solvent!" but if someone else is making money with a strategy like that then I'm open-minded enough not to call it BS. No-one has the monopoly on profitable trading strategies or ideas, it's always interesting to hear about what others are doing, the more diverse the better!
cabletrader, I agree. Free markets with an open diversity of strategies makes for healthy and balanced markets that are sustainable.
Closed my longs and shorts for a net gain. On EURUSD I had 1200 units in my short account and 800 units in my long account. Closed them both at 1.4005