Quote from Wide Tailz:
My original point is as valid here as in your journal: success in any speculative venture is all about the risk:reward ratio and the bet size.
If the trader can't size up the likely minimum R multiple for every trade, it's guessing. You are either the player or the game. You create the game. If you don't, you take the other side of traders who do.
A low risk idea will always have a favorable multiple of potential reward compared to worst case downside.
I'd be happy to discuss this idea in your journal but you have not explained what you are doing, so I must assume you are guessing.
I also assume your outlook is that trading is a battle, a fight to the death. I see it differently: I aim to partner with the market and help it discover transactions at whichever price it may need to move toward. There are many low risk ways to do this.
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Q:Am I guessing ?
A: Sure I am nobody knows the future
I know I'm going to get a lot of wrath for this but perhaps I don't know what you mean by low risk set ups.
I'm assuming you see a pattern or something in price action or some chart action and you think it has predictive power on the future and it's risk.
You may fervently believe that, but I'm more than a little skeptical.
1) The chief risk once you enter a position is going to be the risk of the security . say a utility company vs double financial etf.
I'm sorry I only can use 7th grade math but:
2) This stuff about position sizing, r and all that crap tharp etc popularized is not well suited to trading. It's very well suited to games of chance where the odds are known.
2A) The fact of the matter is in trading the odds are not known nor can they be known nor are returns and price action (bell shaped) normal distribution.
2b) Most importantly IF you believe such and such patterns ARE in the least bit predictive they are requisitely self limiting.
Because unlike games of chance in which the odds are known, your actions actually change the game when you are trading .