Friday, November 21, 2008

The risk / reward lie.

One of the biggest lies in the trading world I see is that the experts claim you should only take a trade if the risk / reward is 2,3, 5 or whatever times in your favour. Now, I think that establishing your risk is vital to your success but I have a problem with the reward part. Let me point out why in the clearest way possible - NOBODY KNOWS WHAT A STOCK WILL DO IN THE FUTURE.
All that you are doing when you discard many high probability signals is lose good momentum trading opportunities and hesitate when you on the verge of trading for real. Since you passed on 20 setups previously (16 of which went on to good profits by the way), now that little voice inside your head asks " are you sure"?
In today’s market especially, all the indicators at your fingertips don't work because the market views them as worthless. Anything can and does happen. These days, momentum is king and should be your deciding factor to pull the trigger. And I firmly believe that you must trade every setup your edge says is probable with no hesitation. As a side note to demonstrate anything can happen, I was trading SRS and SKF again today. When they started to drop from their highs of $300 I opened my mind up to if they could end up $100 lower. Certainly a possibility I thought, as earlier in the day the up swings in the market were violent and these 2 stocks would drop fast. Well, SKF went down $60, SRS $80. Pretty easy to make money when something drops $80 and you're short.
Now if you believe anything can happen, then you can also clearly see that predictions, expectations, hopes and wishes are all meaningless to the smart momo trader. If you trade on the probability of a stock moving in a certain direction then the only signal you should use to take profits is one that shows you the stock has stopped moving or profits are large enough that it is prudent to take it instead of bailing out at your hoped for level.

However on the flip side, setting your risk, the point at which the trade will be proven wrong, is of great importance. This is the thing that you need to focus on instead of the reward. You can set this point exactly and prepare yourself for this loss in advance. It's part of your job description to take losses during the day. Get used to it.

When you prepare to withdrawl amounts from your psychological bank before the trading day starts then you can minimize or eliminate any damage those losses would normally inflict on you. In a sense you can put a step between you and your losses. They become just a cost of doing business like damaged inventory in a store. If you trade your edge 20 times a day and 5 trades are going to be losers and you know you can set the losses at .25 each, you know exactly what to expect. When you balance that against the winners that you typically produce, it becomes much easier to take every trade that comes your way.

These are days of unparalleled opportunities. Don’t let them pass you all day as you wait for the perfect setup. The perfect set up can just as easily fail as a dog.

6 comments:

steve said...

Would be interested to read your take on sideways markets or do you think there is always a trend no matter how small the price move or how long it lasts?

Unknown said...

Again, I thank you for you truly open minded thinking.

OE Trader said...

Nice post. Your trading psychology is a perfect match for this market volatility.

Unknown said...

Hi Scott. Thanks for freely sharing your superb trading style.

I have been day trading SKF for quite a while, but with variable success. My main problem is determining a sensible stop loss for it as it can retrace $1 - $2 within a five (or even one) minute bar and then resume its original direction to great profits.

Other times, it retraces but keeps going, creating a 10 point loss within minutes.

How do you set a sensible stop loss for it? I've tried the low of the previous 5 minute bar, when going long, but then get stopped out too early from a what turns out to be a successful trade.

Hitting the right point of maximum momo certainly helps as the trade P&L jumps into green straight away, but getting in slightly early, for example, often subjects you to scary, and risky, retracements.

BTW it's great to see another bass player in this industry. I play a fretless Musicman Stingray.

Anonymous said...

Scott -

Wanted to see if I could interview you for about 20 minutes over the phone for my site TraderInterviews.com. One of our listeners thought you'd be great to talk to and I agree. Could you email me if you have a minute this week?

Best,

Tim Bourquin
800-485-0422 ext. 15
tim@tncnewmedia.com

Scott said...

Steve- Sideways markets are difficult to trade. Although there is usually something worth trading, it's sometimes better just to go on vacation or take a break until markets perk up again.
James, OE trader, thanks for the kind words.
Chris- Timing your entry correctly when the market momentum has definately shifted is the key. I pay super close attention to what the S&P and QQQQ are doing. When they are all moving in sync, the probability is high for a profitable trade. You might try trading a less volatile stock or ETF until you can feel and see the momo changes coming.
Fretless bass rules!