I’m going to start this thread which follows my strategy called Kingda Ka. It’s a counter trend strategy mainly trading the 4H and Daily charts, although at times I might take a 1H trade. Target is usually 20-150+ pips.
My goal is 2.5% a week. Although my goal is 2.5%, I will consider anything over 1% a week to be a success. Historically this strategy has been more conservative, but i’m ready to take it to the next level.
I know a lot of you might be saying “2.5%? That’s it?” For me, it’s been a challenge simply being positive month after month, to be able to reach 2.5% a week or 10% a month would be amazing. Pushing it to 2.5% will take a lot of discipline, but I think it’s about time. It has a Sharpe Ratio of 2.04 with 76% winning ratio.
My account is just crossed the $300 mark. That will be my starting point:
I’m always thrown off when people talk about a weekly goal. Are you not at the mercy of your system and the market? If you are not reaching your goal, does it mean bend the rules to find a trade? If you have made your goal early in the week, do you skip perfectly valid setups, that have no lesser chance of succeeding? Staying positive for the week by finishing it out conservative, I get. I just never get the goal thing.
Pete, I see your point. Makes perfect sense. I Never bend rules or skip valid setups. As I mentioned, 2.5% is just a goal…if I finish lower, so be it. But I think in trading, as in life, it’s important to have goals.
Hi uptick,
That’s great! if you can do it weekly, and years to come! you will be great safe and I love to see it! unlike other newbies, whom want to get 3-5%/day and end up blowing their accounts in no time!
Best of luck!
cheers
The above person is correct. These goal orientated type thinking is going to cause you a lot of trouble. Sometimes the market will be moving so you should move, if the market is just doing nothing, you should do nothing. I’ve done 1 trade in the last 2 weeks because the market has been quiet based on my method. I shorted the AUD/NZD at a major support level.
Stop trying make money and make pips. Focus like a laser and your trading method. If your trading method, heart, and soul says there is a trade then trade it. If it doesn’t then you shouldn’t be trading. If you are focused on 2.5% per week your going to be forcing trades and trading to make money not trading because your method and head says so.
I must disagree with the comment “Stop trying to make money and make pips” I think that counting pips is open to interpretation. How many orders are placed, did you scale in, scale out… If you have a percentage goal then it is much easier to evaluate.
Everyone trades to make money. So why not compare your success with the percentage of profit?
The outcome of trading your method is money and pips which is used to measure your success.
The biggest point i was making is that having a target when the market isnt doing much and there isn’t any real trades to take based on your method is going to cause you trouble. Since you want to make 2.5% per week and there are no trades to make based on your method then you will be forcing trades that you shouldn’t take just to try and make 2.5% per week. The only trades you should be taking are those based on your method since that is what you understand most. You have 2 choices to make. Trade with a target of 2.5% per week and force trades when the market is quiet. Or you can trade your method when your method appears. Your choice but i would rather the former than the latter by a long shot.
JackMarkets… Yes I did. 2% a day was a nice thought, but like everyone else was mentioning here, you end up forcing trades and bending the rules, which I do not do.
Again, 2.5% is just a goal. I don’t force trades or bend my rules. If I end the week up 0.5% because I didn’t see any setups, then that’s a successful week for me.
I should have enough signals to at least hit 1% a week… but as everyone knows, the market will dictate how many signals I get during the week.
252 trading days a year / 6 days a week is 42 weeks.
2.5% / week - 105% For The Year
1% / week - 42% FTY
0.5 / week - 21% FTY
if you do only 5 trades a day on days markets are already open (not on open or closing days) that’s 20 trades a week.
If u presume 1:1 risk reward i.e u make in pips what u were prepared to lose in stop pips, if u aim for the 2.5% then each trade should risk 0.125% meaning if you are wrong 20 times u lose 2.5% and if u are right all 20 and can get even just 1/5 (1:0.2 r/r) the pips u wanted ur on track for 21% annual. Most times u may get more than u were risking sometimes not.
The main point is manage ur risk across the trading week and even if u are right half the time (lose 1.25%) and only get 1/5 of your pips when u are right (1/5 * 1.25 = 0.25%) that’s 1% lost in aggregate for the week which is a good job after all that exposure and lack of profit taking or failure to let profits run. If u lost that every week you’ll be 42% down but would have learnt a lot. If you recalculate ur risk at the end of every week (not every win or loss) u could end up on top and in control. If u have a day of all wins, factor the profit into the balance and recalculate the risk.
Manage ur risk and never listen to anyone who says risk 1% or 2% of ur account per trade, ive called it a nonsense tip for ages but no one listens. If u can manage 5 trades a day or even 2 a day (risk adjusted as necessary) and get consistently 0.5% a week they’ll be money on the table for you going forward.
Consistency is important but even more is minimal volatility in your methodology.
Felt like writing a babypips post, and this thread pulled the short straw
Good luck to you uptick. Your results will be good for me to follow. Not overly ambitious but realistic and focussed approach. I wish you every success.
