I've been doing a lot of pair/hedge daytrading lately, and my biggest winning days all use it. I simply trade long-bias SOXL when the market goes up, trail a super tight .1 stop when it looks like it's going to go back down, then long UVXY SQQQ when the market goes down. Its like ping pong, just flipping from one to the other. It's much easier than constantly trading different daily gappers, bc you get to know the patterns of a few ETFs over time, and how to trade them. Other occasional pairs = LABD/LABU, GDX/DUST anyone else try this?
I do that as well with other 3x etfs. Do you sometimes overlap a long and inverse when the direction is unclear? For example long TNA and long SPXU simultaneously.
Yes - great observation. I do that premkt too, eg SOXL and UVXY simultaneously, then scale into whichever goes up.
I agree, there's something to be said for trading market etf's Not sure this is what I would call pair trading, as you are not in both at the same time .
Ken, if I am following correctly, what does trading the pairs get you above just going long/short one of the two? For example, TQQQ and SQQQ are a pair. If I am understanding correctly, if you want to go long, you get in TQQQ, then if you want to go short you sell that and get in SQQQ (as a long, which because SQQQ is an inverse is effectively a short on the market). Why not just stick with TQQQ and either long and short it, to get to (I think) very much the same place as going the pairs route? Is there a reason pairs are better? Thanks!
Hi - great question.. the reason is because i have open/pending orders in place ahead of time. i trade sequences of 2-3 trades in either direction with OTO orders... so for example a sequence in SQQQ would be long 52.7 53.1 53.4, and for TQQQ 32.2 32.4 32.7. trading opposites gives me time to set up orders (I do as many as 110 rts daily)