I noticed that for over a year, I have around 60% win ratio in forex, however, the benefit of this thread for me is to try to get my winners to make more money than my losers where before it was equal.
So my 1st attempt was to scale out of 1/2 my contracts and bring my stop up to break even, but this caused me to turn a winning trade into a slight loser.
Next step was to increase my limit ie the amount of pips I wanted to take out of the market and then not watch the trade but still have a stop. This worked out alot better for me. For me its painful to watch the trade once my limit or market order gets me into the trade especially in forex since you are automatically at a slight loss due to commissions. If I can set everything up and then look back in a few hours later, I don't stress as much as I used to. My rule right now is to only average down one time on a pull back if the trend has not been broken and if my stop has not been hit. Other issues I still need to work on is how to not get whipsawed out at a loss.
So my 1st attempt was to scale out of 1/2 my contracts and bring my stop up to break even, but this caused me to turn a winning trade into a slight loser.
Next step was to increase my limit ie the amount of pips I wanted to take out of the market and then not watch the trade but still have a stop. This worked out alot better for me. For me its painful to watch the trade once my limit or market order gets me into the trade especially in forex since you are automatically at a slight loss due to commissions. If I can set everything up and then look back in a few hours later, I don't stress as much as I used to. My rule right now is to only average down one time on a pull back if the trend has not been broken and if my stop has not been hit. Other issues I still need to work on is how to not get whipsawed out at a loss.
Quote from kidPWRtrader:
I would just like to take a moment to reflect on win ratio.
For the longest time I spent looking for a setup that yielded a high % win ratio and I was getting nowhere as far as winning days were concerned.
Within the past 2 months I started noticing that when I just followed the trend and bought every pullback mercilessly I would mysteriously make money. So, I vacillated between the two methods for a while with most of my winning days due to my "dumb" strategy.
Then, 2 weeks ago it hit me that I had no need to complicate anything. In my entire time trading futures since the start of this journal, I have come up with 1 non-related AHG setup that has a high % win ratio and I *dont* use it often because it doesn't make the most cash. Grinding it out following the trend, is the main bread and butter.
I started trading with the trend and buying every single pullback as an experiment. 8 days later I had no losses and most of my days were big updays. Today I had a downday of -220 dollars. I had one trade left on before i went to school. I had my limit to sell @ 1770 with a loose stop.
Though I don't trade afterhours, my target got hit for a gain of 21 pts. I am not even counting this as a winning day, but this is the thing about this style of trading.
If you can accept a low win ratio, the next step is to let your winners run. My win ratio for the last two weeks is <40 %. I routinely get 3-4 losing trades in a row. And that doesn't phase me. I think I am the most consistently wrong trader in the room, but I have been doing just fine.
I hope this might spark a lightbulb for someone whose having trouble. Don't be afraid to get stopped out. Every stop brings you one step closer to a home run trade.