One of the downsides of back testing is that it can lure the trader into overconfidence about systems and the way they have performed in the past. There is always a real danger of curve fitting and data mining to find a perfect system that would have worked with an exact set of market conditions […]
Tag: ETFs
Profitable ETF Trading Strategies: the power of back testing
The purpose of this article is to make the strongest case possible for back testing as a crucially important way of understanding your system. In other articles I will suggest that too much back testing is bad and that you can learn too many wrong lessons if you’re not careful. That said however, back testing […]
Profitable ETF Trading Strategies: feed the bulldog every day
In order to build up your emotional and financial bank accounts during the day, short-term traders should consider the technique of “feeding the bulldog” and making this a primary objective of each trading day. There is an old saying to the effect that “talking doesn’t feed the bulldog”. This is a colorful way of saying […]
Profitable ETF Trading Strategies: managing your emotional bank account
Managing your intraday trades when the market is open can be a very nerve-racking experience. Sometimes there’s so much going on that it’s hard to keep track of what’s important. Other times it seems like you’re watching paint dry and nothing is going on in, and you can feel your nervous energy building up in […]
Profitable ETF Trading Strategies: leveraging our need to be right
By learning how to manage your need to be right, you can reduce your trading frequency, improve your trade management skills and add directly to your bottom line. There is a connection between our need to be right, our self-confidence, and our trading frequency which resides deep in our emotional center. By understanding this […]
Profitable ETF Trading Strategies: measuring your open risk in minutes per trade
The shorter the time frame of your typical trade, the more important that the refinement of your entry becomes. In fact, the more important that the refinement of each segment of trade management becomes, because there is less time available to correct for errors or to overcome sloppiness in execution. For short-term trading, such as […]
Profitable ETF Trading Strategies: 10 ways to improve your span of control
Understanding your span of control is essential for knowing the maximum number of trading positions you can have open any single time. Sometimes span of control is the limiting factor in the number of open positions. Sometimes it is trading capital available. Sometimes it is your maximum allowable portfolio heat. Your portfolio heat means how […]
Profitable ETF Trading Strategies: understanding your span of control
The military describes managing current operations as command and control. One of the most important concepts in command and control is the idea of span the control. Span of control describes how many simultaneous, subordinate operations you can successfully manage at appropriate level of detail given the current situation of uncertainty, stress and pressure. […]
Profitable ETF Trading Strategies: a checklist for battle stations
Military command posts must monitor the situation around them 24 hours a day and seven days a week. There is never a time when they can take the day off. But there are also times that require extra vigilance and attention to detail such as when the unit is about to engage in a new […]
Profitable ETF Trading Strategies: designing a robust trading system
One of the first questions the new trader will ask is how to develop a trading strategy that works in all market conditions. If you think about this as a design problem you will realize that this is always the most difficult task of all. Such a system would have to be both strategic and […]