How many trades per day for you guys? (Today)

Hello:
I was stopped out of my short trade at 1172.25. I took a second short entry at 1170.50 and closed it out just a bit ago at 1166. I can take one more entry if it presents itself. Otherwise I am through for the day. This is typical for a non-trend day. Small loss or small gain on 2-3 trades.

Lefty

 

Just one question before answering: am i the miserable bastard?

 

now. answer the damn question. dont be shy FredBloggs.

 

lol. no - i am.

 

I will take one question at the time and answer it.

“but how many times have you seen a nice profit turn into a loss because you failed to take some profit or didnt have the opportunity to trail some kind of trailing stop?”

My answer: many times in the past, but after years working on it I found a reasonable solution. Once I win my stop is at the entry, so losing is from than on impossible. And secondly my system reacts fast and accurate. When it signals the turning of the market there is always still some profit left on the table.
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“but then we are making a fatal mistake - we have bigger positions on when we lose than when we win - so our losses could well be larger than our average profit.”

My answer: It is not because YOU trade that way that automatically everybody else does the same. My positions are always the same size. I only have 1 kind of position: 100% in or 100% out. My average profit is much bigger than my average loss and I have far more winning trades than losing trades.
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“a/ whats this got to do with the original question?”

My answer: What’s the use of giving a number only? The real information is not in how many trades per day, but in the explanation why and how. That’s where you can learn something. Most people are more interested how it comes that you do x trades per day instead of only knowing that 25 traders do x trades per day.

 

some fair points.

out of interest - you say you are either 100% in or out - so there is no scaling in or out right?

you move your stop to where you entered after x number of ticks right?

if so then i would have thought you may get a high number of break evens - depending i guess on how many ticks x is!?!

i agree that the reason is more important than an arbitrary figure that means nothing without an explanation. i do think though that overtrading is a serious issue for a lot of people. of course some techniques will always require a high number of trades than others - but there we go.

do you see the frequency of trades should be a function of win ratio though - or do you have other thoughts - like the expectancy of the system should dictate the trade frequency?

anyone else??

 

I always take the full position. I trade on a signal, when the signal is there I get in.

I move my stop not after x ticks but based on calculations from my system. As long as my system says that we ‘re in the right direction I stay in, when the system warns me that the position might be in danger because things don’t go exactly as planned, I place a stop on the entry. My system warns very fast which means that in practice I can almost always get out before losing money. But there is always a stop on 2 points (ES).

Frequency of trading is irrelevant to me. If I have 1 signal I trade once; if I have 5 signals I trade 5 times. The signals tell me how many trades to do. If you have a good system you must respect the rules of that system and forget everything else.

 

I agree completely.

Overtrading should not be defined in terms of the number of trades you take. Even two trades in a day is overtrading if you are going outside your pre-determined trading rules to take these trades (i.e. if you are acting on your internal urges and impulses).

As for myself, I take from none to three trades per day - average is about ten trades per week. Looking back over the last eight years of my trading, I must say that the less frequently I trade, the more money I make (and get to keep).

As for my methodology, I trade in a manner similar to the one described by Spike500 (i.e. trade with the trend). Over the years, I have just learned to trust the Moving Averages to keep me on the right side of the trend - well, most of the time.

Happy Trading.

 

i guess this would depend on whether you are a discretionary trader or have an automated/100% mechanical approach. Obviously what you say is right if its the latter.

im more discretionary.

i have certain setups, but i wont take every one. i have some filters that are mostly visual. if it passes i enter. my success depends on the discipline of making sure i only take the good setups (pass all the filters) rather than every trade/setup that comes along.

this is why i dont want to trade more than 3 times a day. there are exceptions of course. today i had 8 signals, 4 were valid and all 4 (would have) won, but i only took 2. had i traded over the 2 then the probability suggests that a loser is likely.

so, what im really doing is waiting for the real good setups to come along - and retire the day with a small number of winning trades. at the moment my win rate is only 50%, but its improving.

this idea tends to go against the common concept that every trade is a unique event.

i also see that i'm trying to predict what the market will do by being so selective (- and again, we know that we dont know what the market will do next - so we play out the edge over time). I see it that im just trying to increase the odds in my favor by being so selective.

when/as my win ratio increases, i will first look to increase size some more rather than the frequency. alternatively, i could trade more markets.

 

Why are we paying these ridiculous fees to these dumbass brokers for doing nothing but giving us more slippage on top of their stupid ass commissions. Let's get rid of these stupid bastards once and for all.