Better to be Wide or Deep?

[jinxu]

I'm not "sanctimontious" but am trying to be realistic. I personally don't even like trading, but it is a way to make money. I don't even "like" other traders, but if they can make money then good for them. Likely I think they have talent, smarts, and worked hard. So respect to them. Some might just be lucky.

You see I was just a dumb young kid when I started here who didn't know any better when I started. I see myself as "lucky" to be a survivor. Personally, I think if there is a "divine" power and it wanted you to be a trader you would've been chosen. But that's just my opinion.

 

[dealmaker]

"TRY To Do Very FEW Things WELL!" - Steve Jobs

 

[carrer]

"Diversification is the only Free Lunch in Investing" -
Kevin O'Leary

Whether it's deep or wide, it's for you to choose. If your objective is to diversify and to be able grow your account enormously, 'wide' is the way. If you are a day trader trading an instrument or 2, then 'deep' is the path.

 

[Scataphagos]

If you've traded long enough then you'll eventually find some good repeating technical patterns that seems to be somewhat consistent. Then the trick becomes recognize that pattern in REAL-TIME and eliminating the false positives.

(1) IMV, "wide or deep" doesn't matter. What does... significant winning percentage where wins are bigger than losses. Also the more issues you try to track, the more trades you are likely to miss. IOW... "focus".

(2) Suggest not trying to "elimate false positives". You can't identify them in time to do you any good, so just let stops control your risks. IOW.... trying to avoid losing trades will cost you more in lost opportunity than you save by correctly "dodging a loser" the small percentage of time you were correct in trying to do so.

 

[dealmaker]

"Markets can be predicted only to a very limited extent, and any single strategy can not provide an attractive return to risk." Jack D. Schwager paraphasing David Shaw from "Stock Market Wizards".

 

[trader99]

Today on my "off day" from analytics consulting, I daytraded. This morning I scalped going purely long. A little here. A little there. Not much but those little points add up quickly even after commission. I felt good since it was uptrend and I went long. As I should be. No more crazy short biases.

Then I had to take my daughter to school. So I missed the 100pts+ ramp up.

Then I came back. I checked my charts. I usually have the 5min and 1min chart and daily. I checked the daily chart. It seems to be at a point that my strategy would tell me to short. I reversed and went short. Then it went my way then against it, but I held because I was convinced and informed from the daily chart that it would have at least a good enough pullback. Then it went sideways then up then down. Then finally down.

I finally got out for a 74 pts move on the YM. Nice! It's not a crazy 100-300 points move but it was good enough for me today.

Also, more importantly, I proved to myself that I was able to trade with the trend when I needed to. And countertrend when I had the right signal. Before I would lose a lot of money unnecessarily just out of short bias. Uninformed. Just basically shorting whenever I feel like it. Rather than based on calculated precise entry point and exit point.

I felt calm during the pullback while I short because it didn't quit hit my target yet and I felt there were more room to go. Of course later on it could still go down or up. But I'm already out and good with it.

74 YM pts is not crazy money. But I feel proud because I followed a systematic thought process which resulted in calm trading rather than frantic trading resulting in unnecessary losses. Of course, it could have continue to go up and I would be OK with taking a loss. It was a good risk/reward. I risked about 40 pts to make 74 pts. Not bad. It's not quite 2:1. Previously I would get stopped out, reenter and get whipsawed.

I do tend to agree with everyone's sentiment about focus. For scalping or semi-scalping you need INTENSE focus. Patience to wait just a few more seconds to get price improvement of a few more ticks or points. Then exit just at the right second before it pulls back.

While I think it's possible to make consistent money with scalping, I think most of my profits come from riding the bigger trends. This was a 47 minutes hold. When I semi-scalp it can range from seconds to a few minutes hold. But the semi-scalping experience helps me refine my entries and exits to be more precise.

This time my higher timeframe helped me rather than hurt me, because I learned how to use the higher timeframe judiciously. The daily, 5min and 1min have to be in a precise configuration before I let the higher timeframe signal informs my intraday trading.

I need to work on some non-trading stuff for my biz now.

Peace.

 

[dealmaker]

Occam's razor
Occam's razor is the problem-solving principle that, when presented with competing hypothetical answers to a problem, one should select the one that makes the fewest assumptions.Wikipedia

 

[trader99]

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/05/dow...er-trump-threatens-more-tariffs-on-china.html

Whoa! I stopped trading in the morning and started working on non-trading stuff. Just checked in now. Wow!

Maybe I should have kept the short given my short signal from the daily timeframe. haha. But I'm happy with what I did. It rebounded intraday and had I kept the short would have erased all of my profits and I would have covered intraday at the worst possible time. My covering was right. What I should do is re-short later... Lessons learned.

In any given day there are multiple signals to get in and get out and get back in... I guess had I stayed to watch the screen afterhours I would have been able to re-short.

 

[ballstaranonymous]

Better to be Wide or Deep?

Deep. Balls deep.

 

[trader99]

"TRY To Do Very FEW Things WELL!" - Steve Jobs

If you are trading index futures intraday, then it makes sense to be super focus and deep to understand market microstructure and moves. You need that intensity and focus to do well.