Some Other Points to Take in Consideration
Here are some important points you need to take in consideration while creating your trading system.
1. Always be skeptical about your own ideas, focus only on results. Sometimes is easy to track trading opportunities, what is hard is to capitalize on them and make money from them. The performance of any trading system should be measured with actual trading (either demo or an account with limited funds).
2. Sometimes you lose even when you have followed your system to the rules. Losses are part of the game, there is no possible way to avoid them, and we need to learn to lose. So if you have followed your system 100% and took a loss, celebrate it! The only way to stay ahead of the game is by rigorously following your system.
3. Sometimes while trading large positions you can lose control of your emotions. Don’t be overly aggressive with the market and follow a well planned money management technique. It should tell you what you are going to risk on your next trade.
4. Try to understand why your system works, this way you will develop the required confidence in yourself and your system.
5. There will always be some “indicator” that could have kept you out of a losing trade. But remember your system is not designed to win all your trades, but to win most of them.
6. When you finally created your system, describe it in simple and logical terms. If a 15 year old kid is not able to understand it, then something is wrong with it.
7. Use only 2-3 indicators: one indicator to identify the trend and one or two indicators or variables for entries and exits. The more indicators you use, the more complicated your system becomes. Most of the time “the simpler the system the better performance it will have”. Also use non-correlated indicators, do not choose two indicators that are supposed to measure the same market condition.
8. Test your system over large data samples (over 50 trades) and in various market conditions, this way you can see under what conditions your system works better.
9. If you decide to trade several currency pairs, try non-correlated pairs. For instance, if you trade long the Euro and long The Pound, your are likely to get the same result on both of them, elevating your risk if the market goes against you.
10. News trading? Determine whether you are going to keep your trades open during important news announcements. If you are trading for the short term you are likely to keep tight stops, and an important news announcement might hit your stop loss level.
11. While you are in a trade, open your mind to every possibility, sometimes you don’t see or ignore evidence against your trade.