Is there a reason your stop loss is fixed? It seems that all 4 trades had 4 point stop? Have you tried some type of volatility based stop loss method i.e. some kind of band ??

All fixed. Yes. on this system, volatility based stops worked poorly. Per strategy, many different entry and exit methods are tested to find the one has been working the best.

Are you trading a. breakout in the direction of the the trend ( however you define the trend) or b. pullback within the said trend in the direction of trend, or c. perhaps a mean reversion against the trend or d. something all together different like a specific pattern independent of any trend context?

last4trades



1 More stop out then reduce by 1 contract. 4 from 5. Uncomfortable mind on last two trades. stopped out at swing low then market reversed. It would have been a good size winner. Noticed a wanting to trade manually. It was dismissed very quickly but I was surprised that it was still lingering around. Meaning emotional traps are always will be there so never let my guard down.


That is it.

Based on the comment above "...stopped out at swing low then the market reversed" and feedback in other posts where you answered that you are basically trading pullback in the direction of the trend and that the fixed stop size ( tested over period of time) is what works best:


Has the trend already changed once the stop is triggered? In other words, does the stop size and triggered stop indicate A. a new trend has already emerged or B. new trend is emerging or C. sideways movement ( no more clear trend) or D. something else?

I did not Quantity of A,B,C and D when stops were hit. But I did test reverse positions when stops were triggered which was not profitable.

1. As a corollary to stop loss exits question, are the INITIAL projected profit targets based on some A. "optimized" multiple factor of stop loss amount or B. volatility based i.e. multiples of some band C. trend analysis ( similar to previous stop loss related questions) or D. combination of A, B, C or E. something else i.e. time based?

-If I remember correctly, started out with just multiple of risk then expanded testing to volatility, trend and time exit. I do not think bands were considered on exit testing.

2. Are actual profit exits i). same as initial profit targets, or ii) involve some type of trailing or iii) time based exits or iv) combination of i), ii) and iii) or v) something else?

- combination of time and target. Trailing had the worst performance.

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Based on reply above,

why would determining (pricing) the initial stop and stop loss be any different from how you determine (price) initial target exit and eventual exit ? I understand you were testing in search for "optimal"....but conceptually it makes no sense to have a constant fixed initial stop without consideration for volatility, time and price structure ( volatility could be considered part of price structure as well as type of trend, uptrend or downtrend)?

I guess the only good reason I could think of is that your reward to risk is several times fold with a lower win : loss ratio and you have high confidence determining if price is in a clearly defined trend or not., such that multiple entries in direction of trend pays off....But based on the low frequency of your trades as I understand, it does not appear that you have multiple attempts per given trend....

Just trying to figure out how you could improve your system and clarify further system design conceptually.