Get rid of the losers and keep the winners. Sometimes I still make money by having one winning trade and three losing ones by cutting the losses short.
While winning percentage is interesting, it is only a component of the true measure of the success of a strategy, which is "expectancy". See books by Van Tharp for a detailed discussion of this.
As I posted elsewhere, I can't reply to this survey as you didn't include a 99 ( really a 95-98 overall) %. No trick to it, just a few things I know about and I have the discipline of a Buddhist. PS This % has nothing to do with making huge sums of money. so don't come to me for a loan (or my methods )
what? first, it's a legitimate poll, but i have a hard time believing that anyone, no matter what strategy they employ, is shooting above 70%. i could believe the select few, but according to this poll, 49% have winning trades on 70% or MORE of there trades....no. if so, please, speak up.
dafugginman, It's the successful scalpers who are getting 70%+ ... any less than that is breakeven after commissions, when it comes to scalping, in my opinion... ... people playing for trends can make as much as a scalper with the same account size by hitting 40-50% (rough guess), but the equity curve will be more volatile for the trend traders... the moral is that successful scalping and trend trading can produce equivalent results with very different % wins, so the choice of strategy boils down to personal preference... trend traders will have both big losing days and big winning days, scalpers will have moderate sized days with consistency.... but the end $ result can be the same... Candle
Well, according to John J. Murphy, the best traders make money on only about 40% of their trades. I think he means over the long haul and in a trend following strategy combined with classical and prudent hold to winners and let losers go money management.