im workin on an end-of-day kind of system (enter/exit on close). it also colors bars red, green, blue(neutral). visually it looks great. like almost after every entry there's at least one day when it closes in the direction of the position taken. but i can't come up with a systematic exit condition that works. it's really annoying. for example it can enter today, make new lows for 5 days with closes being in the middle of bars, and close moderately lower than my entry on the last bar and kick me out. so i missed those nice lows cuz i can only exit on the close, and closes never went that low. really annoying. probably it can't work without some sort of intraday micromanaging.
I know exactly how you feel ive made system after system after system, until i went crazy. You think youve got it and then you use it on a different security and its a complete mess. In the end i decided to focus on end of day analysis and patterns and then traded intraday.
I agree with you 100% wwatson. Yes, this has been somewhat of a problem for me too in a post-bubble environment... I have tried to resolve things by extending how long I hold my trades. I am also swinging more, but will not hesitate to scalp positions I feel strongly about.
I like your post candletrader, Check the chart setups topic i posted a sytem i like to use on the QQQ. Let me know you thoughts!!
wwatson1, I have read your strategy with interest. There is certainly good merit in it, so long as you keep your stops with discipline. Kind regards, Candle
Traderkay, I do not fully understand the system you are describing, but why is it necessary to only exit at the close? I swing trade and my exit is often based on a stop. If the trade goes in my favour on the first day I draw a trendline on the 30 min chart. I then draw a parallel stop-line offset by an amount that won't take me out of the trade just because of insignificant temporary price spikes. I judge the size of the offset based on reviewing the historic behaviour of the 30-min chart. Using this method you do not need to track the stock all day, although it is advisable to update the stop at mid-session. I will also exit pro-actively with a limit bid entered for the day. The limit price is selected based on an estimate of the price that will take MACD to an overextended level based on historic review of the 30-min chart. As my broker allows one-cancels-all orders, I can get my stop and limit in place and go and play golf.
thank's candle, dufferdon i use exactly the same stop-loss and trailing stop on allot of my position it works very well as each stock has its own volatility. I think this may be quite a popular stop method. When i first started trading i used to use a moving average cross as an exit, i also watched the parabolic SAR as its stops tighten as the position trades in your favor but that soon went down the toilet and i moved on to the method you have described above. It also works well in intra-day trading with 1 and 5-min bars.
Because if the data is close based then you have to exit on the close. Even if you go intraday and apply the same system intraday, you still will have to choose some discrete point to enter/exit, either open or close of min. bars. Perhaps, I'm not very clear but hopefully you'll get the feeling of what I'm trying to say