My best ones seem to show profit right away and they also have a longer holding period. Last year my average hold time for all my trades was just under 4 days (3 days, 22 hrs, XX mins). What I've also found interesting is "my" system's ability to "predict" the move before it happens.
For example: I'll be in several different markets (futures) and one position will reverse (short to long, long to short). This will go against the other positions I have and the charts make it appear that this trade might be a loser. This one takes off and then the rest of the markets I'm in, provided they are correlated in some manner, follow suit. Often times not at all what I would have predicted based on the charts.