I"m running some profit target scans on the system: I'm currently running 3 profit targets to scale out at 30%, 20%, 20%, and then keep the final 30% until the final exit.  Maybe the system will come up with selling 30% at a 3% target, 20% at 5%, 20% at 8%, and the rest is a runner, who knows.  

    What I expect from the results is for the % winning trades to go up and for the total profit to go down (since you won't have all your money in the big runners).

    The one logistical problem with having multiple price targets for BPT is that these targets could be hit at any time during the day and we could NOT send out email notifications in real time.  However the solution would be to just tell you to set GTC Sell Limit orders ahead of time so that they just execute automatically, because again we could not send you real time alerts intra day if a 2% or 3% target was met..  

    I am doing this with options positions...

    Posted by lessarda on 29th of Jun 2011 at 01:41 pm

    Still fine-tuning it, but on this trade I took 25% off over 25% gains (on a gap it was over 37%) and am 50% out now at a 50% target. So far it's just an arbitrary target, like the Stock Trader's Almanac 'always sell half on a double' rule.

    Looking at the historical data from Tumbler's work, the average return with the 20 contracts parameter is about 36% (with the assumption of 5% off per round-trip for commissions/slippage); if you change that to a constant $ investment, it's about 37%. So maybe something like 20% / 40% / 60% / 80% or 30/40/50/60 targets for each 25% sale would fit the historical results better. Or half out by 40% and wait for the signal on the rest.

    What I suspect with the historical options trades, given my experience so far, is that many of them hit 50% gains or more at some point, even if they ended up lower in the end -- especially because of overnight gaps. So if this is the way the market works, why not have sell targets to catch the spikes -- especially if they exceed the long-term average of the system? You may miss a few 200% gains, but I suspect you will also turn more 10-20% gains into 40-60%, which would raise the overall average return.

     

    Kept the targets intact and am out 75% @ 75%...

    Posted by lessarda on 30th of Jun 2011 at 04:06 pm

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