Quote from benysl:
How do you increase the edge to 51/49??
Determine the trend of the market on a long term basis and enter batch positions on a short term basis. Short term for me is 2 to 6 weeks. I use batch trades because 1... Reduces risk, you gotta be nuts to put all your money in one or two stocks. 2... They way I pick stocks I usually get one or two or three in the group that really take off (or drop like a rockwhen short). 3...You never really know which stock is going to move.
If you only enter one or two stocks, the whole market could be advancing and your stocks can still go down. This is a numbers game not a stock prediction game.
Here is some real stats from 5/2004 to present...
Compounded Rate of Return 38.52%
108 winners 102 losers total 210 trades for 51%
What keeps me in the green is my average winners to losers...
Ave winners Avg losers
Long Trades $1,323.93 ($836.28)
Short Trades $800.89 ($465.30)
All Trades $1,057.28 ($616.72)
But In my opinion your barking up the wrong tree...... I actually just broke above the 50 % mark with my last trades over the last two months... I'm was in the 47 to 49 % from 2004. But then again 2004 was a crappy year for trendfollowing. But in reality, it wouldn't hurt to have both on your side... % trades profitable and average winners to losers....
I did a back test from 2000 and was at 57 % winners but again the real key is in the average winners to losers. The backtested
Compounded Rate of Return was 140 %

. Of course this is assuming we could have shorted all the stocks that the system picked to short....In any event the system thrives on a trending market..up or down...
From 1997 my backtested results were 73 % winners...but everything was going up from 1997 to 2000. Compounded Rate of Return was 123 %
So to answer your question...define your trend...then apply it consistently ....trade portfolios of at least 15 ...not a few stocks ....
when you need to buy stocks buy good ones that are meeting and beating estimates and when your shorting, short junk.
Good luck ...
Nick