IMHO, the point of mechanical systems is to prevent one from
second-guessing oneself. By taking the emotion out of
trading, they allow one to be consistent; this is important because
the lack of consistency is a major pitfall for many traders (and I
include myself in that category).
Therefore, I suggest that if you're going to run a mechanical
system, you take all its trades. Otherwise, you're really
engaging in discretionary trading, and there are better ways of
doing this (for those who do it well) than by cherry picking a
mechanical system.
exactly. if you want to trade the GDX system, as a system,
yes, right now is a better time to start that when the signal
occurred. But if you want to use the GDX system to figure out
when to take discretionary trades.............don't.
I don't know that its a great time to short GDX as a
discretionary trade, but if you want to start using the GDX system,
of course this would be an advantageous time to start, because
you'll be 2-1/2% ahead of the system when you stsrt. Means
you can start with a 5-1/2% stop instead of a 8% stop.
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GDX system
Posted by hstrader on 22nd of Nov 2010 at 01:21 pm
This run has not done so well so far, however is this a good spot to get in?
thanks
IMHO, the point of mechanical
Posted by algyros on 22nd of Nov 2010 at 01:32 pm
IMHO, the point of mechanical systems is to prevent one from second-guessing oneself. By taking the emotion out of trading, they allow one to be consistent; this is important because the lack of consistency is a major pitfall for many traders (and I include myself in that category).
Therefore, I suggest that if you're going to run a mechanical system, you take all its trades. Otherwise, you're really engaging in discretionary trading, and there are better ways of doing this (for those who do it well) than by cherry picking a mechanical system.
exactly. if you want to
Posted by Michael on 22nd of Nov 2010 at 01:41 pm
exactly. if you want to trade the GDX system, as a system, yes, right now is a better time to start that when the signal occurred. But if you want to use the GDX system to figure out when to take discretionary trades.............don't.
I don't know that its
Posted by Michael on 22nd of Nov 2010 at 01:30 pm
I don't know that its a great time to short GDX as a discretionary trade, but if you want to start using the GDX system, of course this would be an advantageous time to start, because you'll be 2-1/2% ahead of the system when you stsrt. Means you can start with a 5-1/2% stop instead of a 8% stop.