Quote from Spydertrader:
In terms of average numbers of trades, The market decides for me. A flat (tight range day) provides more opportunities, but each opportunity provides less profit. On the flip side, a day like 3 weeks ago provided fewer trades (by a huge amount) but each trade provided much bigger profits. In addition, someone trading at a different resolution level than myself, would have a completely different number of trades. Fine Resolution (bug / leaf) has more trades; Coarse Level Resolution (Forest / Tree) would have fewer trades. I have had days were I only made 4 trades and days where I made 32 trades (and everything in between).
I consider the wash trades as +/- 2 tics or break even. Over time, the wash trades even out. Some days, I have multiple wash trades in a row. other days, I have none. Occasionally, I have a loss of 3 tics, due to my inability to react fast enough to a swift market movement, or my own confusion about 'market context' (which side is right?, and is this an FTT or an HVS?)
In terms of profits per trade, that too depends on volatility and range. Three weeks ago we had a single bar which spanned 12 points. During Friday's in late summer, the entire range might only reach five points. I have had days where I only walked away up 2 points, and I have days where I banked an extraordinary amount of capital (and everything in between).
I also leave plenty of money on the table - meaning I do not normally extract three times the daily range. I have done so a few times, but again, it is more the volatility and range of the market which dictates the amount of available profit, rather than, my skill as a trader.
I haven't yet fully (and correctly) used all the available tools (Tic charts for example) in my daily trading. During the day, I only use the tools currently being discussed in the Journal, but monitor the next tool throughout the day. In this fashion, I can answer questions more easily - based on what everyone else has available to them. After all, nobody wants to hear me say, "Oh don't worry about that. If you were using STR / SQU, you'd have caught that spike." Such a response isn't helpful with respect to assisting people learn the methods being discussed.
I hope you find the answers above helpful. If not, please let me know.
Good Trading to you.
- Spydertrader