Friday, June 24, 2011

don't worry about your trading success rate

what is better in trading?
70% success rate
or 45%?

70%, right!

well, not necessarily.

i was just checking
my old trading data
from the
ruthless trading diary that i maintain
and want to share two crucial observations.

1. out of 46 trades i took
during a particular period last year
my success rate was 63%
but i had eroded 12% of my principal amount
compared to what i had at the start of that period.

2. out of 18 trades i have taken
in the last 2months
my success rate is 45%
and i have made 19%
on what i started with
at the start of this period.

on digging deeper
the reasons were simple

in case 1
i was cutting winners early
and booking losses late.

in case 2
where my strategy was different
i had hedged positions.
so for every profit
there was a loss.
but since i had hedged
two different things
of different nature
the difference in profit and loss was big.

--

so?

though recording and analysing
trades is important
too much of emphasis on trade success ratio
is not that important.

it often is just a reflection of your method.

you may be winning more
and yet bleeding.

what really matters is
your strategy
its implementation
and consistency.

so, don't worry about your trading success rate
once you get it right
you will see a dramatic change in the net results!

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