Quote from Baruch:
So you are adding to losers?
No, never!
"Losers" are only that once the original plan is negated. Once that is the case, I will exit totally.
Position scaling / pyramiding depends on my plan. If the R:R of the play justifies it, yes, I will add on adverse excursion levels.
That isn't "adding to losers". Don't forget that the higher the level you add, the more your R:R grows also. Many people don't quite understand this. There is a big difference between adding to a trade you have planned well and isn't over yet and a trade that has obviously violated your plan. Once your "out" trigger is hit, you don't add - you run.
Averaging down, "Adding to losers", as you call it, is one trading style that is employed by some of the biggest traders out there. I've heard of traders at the CBOT that make a few hundred K a month that trade exactly like that. The only example I can think of on ET is AMT4SWA. He trades like that, too. People say he's got balls of steel, but he doesn't. He knows how ratios work. The levels of maximum excursion are the levels of highest R:R, so why not add there? Do the maths on this and you'll understand. AMT4SWA is one of the best traders I know, he's posted his trades for months LIVE in NihabaAshi's chatroom, and he regularly trades the ES with anywhere between a few dozen and a few hundred contracts, doing just that.
That said though, I think he's a little more extreme than me. I'm actually quite conservative.
This trade showed declining volume on the retrace to the top, so I decided to close all at the 320 level, got out almost BE on 1/2 and ~-10T on the other 1/2.
This one was a good play within my game plan, I lost a little bit - ah well! But if I win - very high reward!
For me, trading is not about being right. It's all about ratios. If the potential R:R is 4:1, I can be wrong 75% of the time...
OK?
P.S: ES short from 20.25 starting to look nice.