Winning percentage

[mercedes500]

Quote from Sucker:

"The best traders make money on only about (*) of their trades. That's right. Most trades wind up being losers. How then do traders make money if they're wrong most of the time?."

John J. Murphy


* The percentage will be posted after we have the average poll results.

Get rid of the losers and keep the winners. Sometimes I still make money by having one winning trade and three losing ones by cutting the losses short.

 

[Sucker]

Quote from candletrader:

To get meaning out of this survey, I suggest it should be redesigned to ask for winning % within various strategies... an 80% winning strategy for scalping is about what you need to be making a reasonable profit... but 80% with a trend trading strategy is totally amazing.... 40%-50% for a trend trading strategy is about right, but 40%-50% for a scalping strategy will lead to rapid failure... winning percentages mean nothing unless put into the context of the general trading strategies...

Valid point. The poll is intended for a trend trading strategy.

 

[MartinWeinberg]

While winning percentage is interesting, it is only a component of the true measure of the success of a strategy, which is "expectancy".

See books by Van Tharp for a detailed discussion of this.

 

[stock777]

As I posted elsewhere, I can't reply to this survey as you didn't include a 99 ( really a 95-98 overall) %.

No trick to it, just a few things I know about and I have the discipline of a Buddhist.


PS This % has nothing to do with making huge sums of money. so don't come to me for a loan (or my methods )

 

[dafugginman]

what? first, it's a legitimate poll, but i have a hard time believing that anyone, no matter what strategy they employ, is shooting above 70%. i could believe the select few, but according to this poll, 49% have winning trades on 70% or MORE of there trades....no. if so, please, speak up.

 

[Babak]

who the #%$& is choosing 90%?!?!

 

[hii a_ooiioo_a]

The question is, who is choosing 10%??? :eek:

 

[Gordon Gekko]

Quote from hii a_ooiioo_a:

The question is, who is choosing 10%??? :eek:

hee hee

 

[candletrader]

Quote from dafugginman:

what? first, it's a legitimate poll, but i have a hard time believing that anyone, no matter what strategy they employ, is shooting above 70%. i could believe the select few, but according to this poll, 49% have winning trades on 70% or MORE of there trades....no. if so, please, speak up.

dafugginman,

It's the successful scalpers who are getting 70%+ ... any less than that is breakeven after commissions, when it comes to scalping, in my opinion...

... people playing for trends can make as much as a scalper with the same account size by hitting 40-50% (rough guess), but the equity curve will be more volatile for the trend traders... the moral is that successful scalping and trend trading can produce equivalent results with very different % wins, so the choice of strategy boils down to personal preference... trend traders will have both big losing days and big winning days, scalpers will have moderate sized days with consistency.... but the end $ result can be the same...

Candle

 

[Sucker]

Quote from Sucker:

"The best traders make money on only about (*) of their trades. That's right. Most trades wind up being losers. How then do traders make money if they're wrong most of the time?."

John J. Murphy


* The percentage will be posted after we have the average poll results.

Well, according to John J. Murphy, the best traders make money on only about 40% of their trades. I think he means over the long haul and in a trend following strategy combined with classical and prudent hold to winners and let losers go money management.