Quote from baggerlord:
Actually, if you price your trades to be truly 1:1, you need to sustain exactly a 50% win rate over the long run to break even. That is better than 95% of active day traders will ever do!
Of course there are strings of losses. That is why we have a limit to our risk per trade. No big deal. Fact is if you are shooting for a higher ratio you will have more losers and longer strings of losing trades. That is just plain statistics.
You are right that letting winners run is an age old adage. Most of those that teach these principles have never made money at trading. The overwhelming majority of the traders that follow this advice lose money.
I personally have read chess books, studied chess, and I eventually became a master. When I put the principles in books into practice, they worked.
I read poker books, studied it some more, and next thing you know I am winning, and made a living at it for 7 years.
I have been studying trading for 10 years. I have followed the advice of the "experts". I have worked damn hard at it. I don't tilt or double down on losses or anything silly like that. But nothing ever worked when it came to capturing larger swings. The only time I started making money is when I just started scalping momentum on stocks.
Why is it I have never seen a single "expert" produce a winning statement? Is it because they are humble and don't want people to know they've got some $$. Hell no! Look on the poker forums. Anytime one of them goes on a nice win they post that graph for all to see. I used to do it to too. People bragg all day long.
I'm sure some are good enough to predict trends. I am not. Most are not. You know I like you and have defended you in the past (not that you need it), but even you have been complaining for years that the tape sucks. I've seen you post a winning blotter with the promise to keep posting for x period of time and then you are gone. I can draw a conclusion from that.
Maybe the tape doesn't suck. Maybe that is just the markets. Mostly random, with some direction here and there.
Why put the pressure on yourself to predict, when you can start off just reading momentum, rolling with it, and letting randomness keep you from losing too much.