Opening or closing a trade is the most obvious activity that every trader must undertake. But, trading is a process not as a single action. This process requires many steps each one of which buy Periactin online must be known in advance if trading is to be a successful activity. The exact number of stages in the process will vary a bit depending on the methodology that is used, but the need to understand this process does not change across different systems.
To illustrate this process we will use a trend following system, such as that used by Spread Select, as an example. This will demonstrate the various parts of the process. There are 9 stages in this process although not all of these need to be repeated for every trade.
The first decision for every trader is to decide on the overall and associated risk parameters. As these are the same for all trades this step needs to be undertaken once and reviewed periodically. So, since we decided to use a trend following strategy, the focus has been on markets such as FOREX and commodities as these markets show the best trends. The trading fund is known in advance and by applying an appropriate percentage risk per trade it is straightforward to calculate how much the maximum risk per trade. This will need to be reviewed every month or so, or more often if a big draw-down is experienced.
The nest step is to identify which markets are displaying trends. Spread Select does this according to the THERM methodology. This is done a number of times per week and is reviewed daily. Any trades will be entered in accordance with the results of this analysis and, because the results are known before the trading day begins, it does not need to be repeated for every trade. Having identified which markets are trending, the next stage is to assess the trend for risk and strength. This is important as we do not wish to trade weak trends or those that are overly extended. Chasing a trend is a sure way to end up with low probability trades.
The outcomes of this analysis lead directly to the fourth step which is to identify which setups are confirmed and therefore how the trade will be managed. The setups are predefined within the system and so this is done automatically by the THERM. So, we now know which instruments we might trade and how we will manage any trade we might enter. However, we do not yet know if we will actually take any trade. This is fifth stage price cialis and is probably the point where the greatest amount of judgement is required. It is necessary to identify appropriate entry points and assess intraday what is happening in the market in order to time the entry.
The sixth step is the final step before the trade is entered and is one of the most important. This involves setting the risk parameters for the trade, in other words, identifying the stop, setting the target, and calculating the appropriate trade size given our overall risk allowance. Notice that this must be done before the trade is entered so as to allow us to assess the risk to reward ratio for the trade. Only is this is suitable can the trade be entered. This is the seventh step. At this stage it is clear that this is actually quite a trivial action once the trader is familiar with the trading platform since all the decisions have already been made.
The next step in the process is to manage the trade and the exit. As this is done in accordance with the rules of the setup that governed the entry in the first place, it is mostly a matter of applying these rules. However, there may be unexpected events and so there can be some decisions to be made. There is also likely to be need for some discretion in relation to closing the trade in order to time our exit. The final stage is to keep a good record of all trades and to monitor performance. The precise metrics to use to assess performance are a matter of discretion, but at a minimum it is necessary to know the percentage of winning trades, the win to loss ratio and the percentage growth of the fund. In addition, it can be useful to set targets and assess performance in relation to these targets. Finally, the trader must use this record to review trades, assess how well the rules are being kept, and see if there are mistakes being repeated.
No system is perfect, but it is important to recognise that the act of putting on a trade is only one in a series of actions and is almost certainly the easiest to accomplish. There are decisions to be made at every other stage of the process. Trading rules help to guide the trader through these decisions by reducing the discretion allowed. There is a lot of information produced in this process and ensuring that this information is properly interpreted and readily available to guide decisions is an important and often overlooked requirement of a good system. Spread Select uses the THERM to do this and you can find out more on the site.
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Posted under Currency Trading
This post was written by admin on August 19, 2011
