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I do think so. Of course, I could diversify more into commodities, overseas equity markets, bonds etc. but that seems like taking on higher risk per instrument in order to reduce risk on more economically tradable instruments, so not something I'm keen on. I don't put faith in diversification in...

There is a tendency (though not seen every time) for prices falling from a high in an uptrend to fall even faster than they went up. This can mean you have to exit a long lower than you had planned. Its generally too late to enter an uptrend while it is suddenly getting steeper. If it is rising...

One advantage of your approach is that in a year or two if you ever need to review the trades you've done, it will be very clear why you took them where and when you did. This can certainly help strategy development and improved TA along the correct lines.

Your impression is correct, but necessarily so when trend-following. There is no real diversification available if trend-following in forex or equities so this would be a cul de sac for me to explore.

To my surprise, Master Po, I half agree. My trend assessment criteria are rigid but my entry signals are really vague. I'm basically going to use any excuse and half a candlestick pattern to get into a trend if I rate it highly. Of course, this means I'm in some trends early and some even later...

Everything based purely on charts. I only use MA's on the charts, no off-chart indicators.

Its a risky strategy, as its possible for both break-out trades, long and short, to be triggered in volatile conditions and for both to be stopped out. However, with widely spaced entry orders it could be the only practical way to capture the break-out from an established range as an example...

Buy and hold is good for income only. As a trading strategy, it comes with no risk management except let time work it out. Potentially, this means a risk of 100% over a holding time-frame of a life-time. OK, if you want to hold something for dividends and let your executors sell the assets at a...

A large loss might be balanced by multiple smaller wins. But the fact that it occurs and recurs does suggest that large losses are unplanned within the strategy and that the depth of each large losses is similarly unknown. Although the strategy might be running consistently in the money, the...

If its in an uptrend, this is a good plan for trend-following, though you also need exit criteria for when the trend reverses. But "buy-and-hold" as strategy normally suggests no exit criteria. This is an investor's strategy, aiming to benefit from dividends as a regular and dependable income...

I hear much about positioning entries, stops and TP orders according to S/R levels, and this is from traders I really respect. But I find I can only reliably predict what the market has already done......

You cannot possibly have known sufficient women to be qualified to generalise.

Well at least the spelling is correct and all your punctuation, spacing etc. very accurate. That's about all the good things I can say about this. So long.

Thanks chaps, thoughtful stuff, and perhaps there can be no definitive right answer, just a matter of finding the least bad compromise. It of course has to be something I can sleep peacefully with once I log off at night. Right now I am applying a new over-riding rule regardless of individual...

I don't use these markers but I agree - each trade should be treated on its own internal merits. And I do use a type of trailing stop as well as a TA dynamic exit signal. But its been several times now that I've seen my basket of trades just tumbling one by one from a hefty total gain to...

Are you bragging or complaining?

Kim - Thanks for these words. But does this mean I should be more worried or I should be less worried? Or just have another glass of red?

Please be judgemental: I hope for critical views here of what I do - so I can make it work better. I don't try to time tops and bottoms: my with-trend entries are always weeks after reversal points. And I was trying to let my winners run so they would pyramid as half of them had already done...

You're right of course, exit needs as much or more planning than entry. Recently had issue where multiple trades went well into profit but none obviously over-done so I let them run. But the cumulative gain would have added significantly to my account (net +30% in a month) and I let most of this...

I've only taken one really big loss on this scale, which was when I had shares in a biotech that was expected to announce good news. I bought more shares as price fell. And it never did make that announcement. That was trading what I thought rather than what I saw (hope winning over evidence)...