Undertrading vs Overtrading.. your thoughts?

[KCalhoun]

%%
Looks like SQQQ SPXS, sds had a good run today+ good exits. I wanted to buy some for swings late today\but figured Wednesday or later =better for me. Most likely a down week for QQQ, even though its above 50dma.......

Good point re Wednesday, often the day after a run up like today they gap back down..... so I sold most into today's breakouts.

Relative strength UVXY SPXS SDOW better than SQQQ SOXS, tech still strong

Earnings wildcards coming too

 

[Handle123]

%%
Sounds like the firm had good reasons for NOT allowing trailing stops.
Plenty of good reasons for that, including;
[1] less commissions
[2] trailing stops WORK well with good uptrends
[3]takes a very good trend to make a trailing stop wok well with shorts \inverse ETfs+ many inverse trends just are not that SMOOTH
[4]profit targets can work better on stuff that spikes up + down much.

For very long term positions in stocks, once it gets to break even stops, never gets moved, same with futures though have to rollover and readjust protective stops for price differences. Backtesting showed me trailing stops in my systems cheated me in profits, I'd never be able to get 1-3 year moves in commodities if had trailing stops. If counter trend chart patterns showed itself, better to hedge open profits and add more positions on deep retracements.

But day trading feasible to lock in larger gains. Being more of a scalper, never stayed in long enough, LOL.

 

[longandshort]

Better to have a concentrated portfolio of high conviction trades. Otherwise your transaction costs (not just commissions!) will eat at your returns. From your setups, you might find that 20% of them have much better realized sharpe ratios and returns. I would limit my trading to just those.

 

[murray t turtle]

For very long term positions in stocks, once it gets to break even stops, never gets moved, same with futures though have to rollover and readjust protective stops for price differences. Backtesting showed me trailing stops in my systems cheated me in profits, I'd never be able to get 1-3 year moves in commodities if had trailing stops. If counter trend chart patterns showed itself, better to hedge open profits and add more positions on deep retracements.

But day trading feasible to lock in larger gains. Being more of a scalper, never stayed in long enough, LOL.

%%
QQQ monthly charts, PSAR[parabolic stop + reverse] trailing stop on monthly candles can trail for many months. I like a 3 year chart/ more than a 3 year move, on qqq.
YEARLY candles on QQQ, PSAR has a monster move since 2013/LOL too long term for me.

 

[Peter8519]

We do not know what will happen tomorrow. If we do, there are easier ways to make money than trading. Enter a trade with all the best possible information and hope for the best outcome. During the mass swapping exercise here, residents in a block were asked to go for COVID swap. One resident said, "I will go for swap as a family." She understands the law of probability and minimize the chance of getting infected. In trading, the opposite is true.

 

[murray t turtle]

We do not know what will happen tomorrow. If we do, there are easier ways to make money than trading. Enter a trade with all the best possible information and hope for the best outcome. During the mass swapping exercise here, residents in a block were asked to go for COVID swap. One resident said, "I will go for swap as a family." She understands the law of probability and minimize the chance of getting infected. In trading, the opposite is true.

%%
Exactly, WE dont know much of the future. BUT we dont want any ''so called free gov vaccine rush job with no product liability/LOL''
Like Melinda [MSFT related]gates told Susan Goldberg ''optimism..............................................'' They love vaccines so we dont have to agree on everytthing

 

[ThinkOrSwim Ranger]

That's right, by trading 10 times 100 shares, you reduce the risk of losing everything. But these trades should be provided by your strategy. Because if your strategy provides one trade per day with a 60% probability, this means that the probability of losing when the trade is broken by 10 is greatly reduced.

 

[murray t turtle]

That's right, by trading 10 times 100 shares, you reduce the risk of losing everything. But these trades should be provided by your strategy. Because if your strategy provides one trade per day with a 60% probability, this means that the probability of losing when the trade is broken by 10 is greatly reduced.

%%
Good points TOS;
10 times the slippage also. BUT some longer term trends are much closer to 88% hit rate. LIKE Stock Traders Almanac , JAN forcaster =88%/up Jan =88% up year ;[OF course when that one fails\ it may fail big; JAN 2009,JAN 1987/LOL.]Real hard to lose all in SPY,qqq.
That's why i do both time frames; not either or for me..............................................

 

[SimpleMeLike]

Today I started scalping at 7am by 10am I was down about -$600. By 3:15pm, I ended the day at about +$25.

I took alot of trades. Was it over trading. hmmmm, I do not know, I just kept on going and stayed focused. I am glad to end the day in the green.

 

[deaddog]

I took alot of trades. Was it over trading. hmmmm, I do not know, I just kept on going and stayed focused. I am glad to end the day in the green.

Did you only take set-ups that were in your plan or were you making things up as you went?

Doesn't matter if you made money or how many trades you made. Did you follow your plan?