Trading Advice

[Red_S]

Hi all

A long time lurker but first time poster here, looking for a bit of advice.

I have been trading the markets for 5/6 years jumping through different strategies on different timeframes learning as I go along. Having read many books and articles I feel I have started to learn about myself and how this affects my trading.

One of the things I have learnt about myself is I tend to succed more when trading on longer timeframes. I've also been evaluting the strong correlation on trades which are 'in play' at the same time. In order to minimise correlation between trades I've thought about having trades across currencies/equities/bond/commodities on both developed and amerging markets. I can't see there being more than 10-15 trades a year however a lot fo research is involved.

What I am asking is if anyone is doing anything similar and what ther're experienes are. After doing the standard planning and research I found that doing simply the daily research/keeping up to date would take a substaintial amount of time.

Thanks In advance

 

[rimshaker]

Over the years I've also found my strength is in longer timeframes (months, years). A 'daytrade' for me is if I make a roundtrip trade in the same WEEK.

Seeing how I study the much longer trends and sector moves, using options was my primary choice of trade. Using LEAPs is a great way to establish positions based on long-term trends. Risk is also inherently less when trading options in that your maximum loss is only the premium, option prices don't exactly follow the underlying stock price 1:1, it's much cheaper to establish a position than with the stock itself, and option trades are settled within 1 day (versus 3 with stocks) so your funds are available quicker.

The only caveats are you have to always be aware when your options expire. And if you choose to exercise any, you must have the cash required in your account. Sometimes the bid/ask spreads are pretty large, depending on liquidity of the underlying stock.