my explanation for the fact that lng is easier than short is not so much drift oriented but moreover psychological. i think greed or hope are more difficult to predict thing than fear.
There is ONLY so much you can make from one side of the market. To be banking consistent profits, having at least 20% from shorts / annual profits is the minimum in my opinion. I am not advocating the fact that trader should always have 80% long and 20% short, but only stating that even thru a bullish year such as the one we witnessed previously, only traders that caught both sides of the market, took the most from it. (today for example... despite the early January run up, my P&L for the day already consist of 50% of the Jan yet.)
i agree completely. i would find it ideal to make the same with longs as with shorts. would be the best insurance against market changes. i admire shorters. i think shorting is even more difficult than scalping (i admire scalpers as well )
it is especially runups like recently that make systematic shorts hard to find. i found that all common sense issues, like drying out volume in a rally or things of that kind, simply do not work. at least not systemised.
statistics ar noew pretty valid. it looks like most people find longs easier. this might be due to the fact that people remember recent past better and we had(ve) that rally. i find the best systematic approach for shorts currently in combining distance to a moving average with volume and an analysis of recent range.
i forgot what the percentages were, however the stat is your more likely to lose money on shorts than longs... if i recall correctly...
the funny thing to me is that even in futures, where you are not punished for shorts in terms of higher transaction cost and in a bear market it still seems to be easier to do longs, at least systematically. i believe it is both probability and size of loss that make shorts tough.
] I think it has to do more with mind set, some people handle shorts really well, others bomb. Conversely, some do well taking a long position, others don't.
agreed. but i strongly believe that trading systems are hard to find for shorts. know how from the long side does not necessarily make it easier.