Quote from spike500:
buy 1 sell 2,
i have the impression that you don't have a clear tradeplan.
Have you ever written down all the rules that are used in the decision making?
Have you ever made stats about these rules? I mean: checking, if possible, 1000 or more trades by applying the rules. Writing down how many good /bad signals you had, how far did the open P/L go wrong, how much was the average profit, consecutive losses, maximum drawdown.......
I think it is essential to have reliable stats to define the final rules that have to be applied. And if your stats are good (i mean reliable) you should be able to forecast more or less the outcome for a group of 10 or more trades.
On top of that it gives you confidence to apply the rules strictly, even if at first sight things look not so good.
The vast majority of my trading is in net credit options. I always carry a great deal of naked premium in my account. I also outright trade futures. I generally trade long term and build positions based upon weekly and daily charts, at least in ES and indices it's that way. I do trade some other markets with stops at times---currencies come to mind but even there I carry naked premium with no stop. That is the plan, so yes I do have a trading plan. As regards the shorter term trading, the plan is to trade mostly divergences and use hourly charts, so I am just learning that game. As far as rules, I have only one that is hard and fast and that is to never lose more than 2% of portfolio on any one trade or trade idea. Because of the time decay factor and the high probability of net premium expiring worthless, I do allow a larger drawdown but never larger than 5% on options. I would tell you though, I have never gotten past the 2% even on those types of trades.
