Thursday, April 23, 2009

Trading Strategies - Why The Logical Strategies Pay

By Gnifrus Urquart

One of the things I have noticed during the 20 years I have spent either actively investing in various strategies, or trialing them, is that the ones which make logical sense usually are the ones which work best in real life.

Lets face it, you could spend 2 life times trialing all the investment strategies people offer you. There are so many out there and I am sure most of them have some merit. What I have found though (and this in no way passes judgment on the merits of any investment strategy) is that if I really think logically about many of the investment strategies which have come my way, there are often holes in them... big ones at that too.

Its quite possible that these strategies, in their wholeness work quite well. But the problem is that if you are trading a strategy which has holes in it, at some stage you'll come up against a real life situation where the strategy has no answer. Then you'll be on your own and you'll need to make a decision outside the strategy. This can be an educated guess, to an intuitive judgment call, to a flip of a coin.

If a trading strategy leaves you guessing, when you make these guesses, you are gambling. A proper trading strategy will leave no contingency for guesswork. It will cover all scenarios taking human error out of the equation. It will be systemised and complete.

Also, the point about trialing a strategy is that you are finding out whether it will make consistent returns over the fullness of time. The point about trading a strategy is that you know it makes consistent returns over the fullness of time. If you have had a guess mid way through the strategy, you cannot be confident its the strategy or your guess which is making the money. You will need to start again.

So if you have a new strategy which looks promising, apply your logic to it first. Try to understand all the trading scenarios you may face and ensure the strategy stands up to all of them and deals with them. This simple piece of advice could save you thousands.

And once you are happy with the logical analysis you have applied, don't forget to dummy trade for a while too. In dummy trading you will probably find a number of scenarios you never thought of. This gives you the chance of ensuring the strategy deals appropriately with them too, without risking any money. Good luck. - 22871

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