Monday, June 22, 2009

Consistent Strategy - Consistent Results

Most traders get obsessively focused on entries somehow believing that the entry is the most important aspect of trading. However, in doing some simple math it became apparent to me that one can make money in trading even if one is not very good at picking entries. I am sharing here two tables and before getting into my analysis of the data, I’ll explain what each table column means:
Win-percentage of winning trades
Loss-percentage of loosing trades
# Trades-the total number of trades evaluated in this row
R Value-the maximum amount of $ one is willing to risk (and loose) per trade
#R per Winner-is the average number of Rs won in the 10 winning trades
P&L-profit or loss for a given row



Although the math in the tables is very simple, it is quite revealing. A trader that performs with only 40% of winning trades can still make money. If the 40% winner trader was risking $100 per trade and was getting into trades that yield 2Rs, he can still make $200 every 10 trades. And if his winning trades yielded 3Rs, then he can make $600 every 10 trades. Amazing, isn’t it?
Normally, we would say that a person in any field that performs well only 50% of the time is not very good at what he does. However, if you manage to stay at 50/50 in trading, you can do very well. A 50/50 trader that risks $100 per trade, if his winning trades yield 2Rs average, he can make $500 every 10 trades, and at 3Rs he can make $1,000 every 10 trades.

So, I think that entering trades that have a the potentially high ROI and never loosing more than 1R are also very important, and maybe crucial, to the trading game.

6 comments:

Tyler said...

Anarco,

Nice post. I am also working on consistency right now. I think it is good to eliminate the swings that can be associated with day trading and finding a consistent strategy.

Good luck,
Tyler

Day Tradr said...

Anarco,

For a trader that who uses a fixed risk for every trade, ROI is very important and a low risk entry point yields a better ROI (like your ABX trade a couple of days before). To be profitable one should have an accuracy of (atleast)

a) 66.6% if your reward:risk ratio is 1:1

b) 50% if R:R is 2:1

c) 33.3% if R:R is 3:1

Cheers!
Day Tradr

P.S. Anarco, I liked how have waited for a low risk entry in your last ABX trade.

Tyler: Your consistency is worth admiration.

anarco said...

Hey Tyler~
I feel I have not yet found "my trading way" but I certainly want that.
I like your CF entry today!
Cheers,

anarco said...

Hey Day Tradr,

I want to start tracking these numbers closely so I can see where I am going wrong or what I need to improve. Thanks for sharing your data!

Cheers,

Tyler said...

Anarco,

The entry in CF was good, but the exit sucked. Ha ha.

I downloaded a spreadsheet from Trader Mike that you might be interested in if you don't already have it.

I have made some modifications to it so that it works for me.

First, when I am looking at a trade, I plug in the stop and the entry, the sheet calculates the number of shares I should buy and based on my risk and calculates 1R, 2R and 3R so I can see where these levels are.

I also plug in my 38% Extension and it automatically calculates how many Rs away it is, so I can see if the trade is worthwhile.

Lastly, the sheet keeps track of my total R, P&L. It also shows how much money I have at work in every trade to compare what size works best for me as well as the % I have risked based on the size of the trade. Keeps track of wins and losses in a percentage, etc.

Sorry that was long. Let me know if you need it or if you have something similar.

Tyler

anarco said...

Tyler,
I have already my set of spreadsheets, but it could be nice to see that XLS to see if I can improve mine.
Thank you!