Quote from chrisofj:
This system back tests well but has some painful losing months. I like seeing these sim trades in real time. If you notice, the idea of a time based exit let this sneak out with some profits on trades that didn't move much. I am experimenting with a maximum dollar loss on day idea to cut the bad losing days but this concept didn't back test that well.
So I'll try to occupy my thinking productively with this system. Only been trying to code and backtest since August.
Meanwhile I am getting used to the idea of first having an overall direction, second having a signal one way or the other, and finally watching 2min bars against the 3SMA+1 to see about getting a nice fill price. As long as I can abandon any concepts fast, I can get some nice trades. As in, all of a sudden there were nice shorts this afternoon.
Yes, very slippery.
You got to be in front of the screen to trade the SPM.
You can have 1m and 2m charts, trading with the 2m but looking at the 1m to help with entries and exits, especially exits.
Or, use a simple stocastic or RSI to exit. Don't dawdle with the exits, take your profits and wait for next trade. Also, take small losses. This is the greatest impediment for new traders - they "HOPE" the trade will soon reverse and get back in the profit zone again, and hope, and hope, and soon it's a BIG LOSING TRADE.
TAKE THE LOSS AND MOVE ON!
The market will always be there and there will be more trades... the secret to profitable trading is to cut losses and let the profit run. Commission and Slippage for ES is fairly low so you should not be bothered by exiting and reentering.
Haven't found a good 'backtested' exit as yet.
Also, it would help to add a filter or trigger after the SPM trade is setup.
Wish I had time to do some more system development but this is ideal trading environment now for me with such high volatility that I'd rather trade now and develop later when volatility reverts to the norm (VIX below 30).
