Easy hedging strategy

Been lurking on these boards for a bit…thought I’d share my own strategy which seems to work really well. Demo tested it Nov/Dec, and have been trading real money since the beginning of the month (my account is up 2.45% but I’ve only been trading 1-2 days of week because of work contraints!). I only trade on days with big economic announcements (and I avoid Mondays and Fridays).

Basically, what you do is open a position in the direction of the trend and create a tunnel. If the trend continues in your direction, you bail out with a 30 pip profit. If the trend reverses on you, you open a second position in the opposite direction and bail out with a 30 pip profit!

To understand how this works, here’s an example (you can see the full visuals for the below text here):
1 - To keep things simple, let’s assume there is no spread. Open a position in any direction you like. Example: Buy 0.1 lots at 1.9830. A few seconds after placing your Buy order, place a Sell Stop order for 0.3 lots at 1.9800. Look at the Lots…

2 - If the TP at 1.9860 is not reached, and the price goes down and reaches the SL or TP at 1.9770. Then, you have a profit of 30 pips because the Sell Stop had become an active Sell Order (Short) earlier in the move at 0.3 lots.

3 - But if the TP and SL at 1.9770 are not reached and the price goes up again, you have to put a Buy Stop order in place at 1.9830 in anticipation of a rise. At the time the Sell Stop was reached and became an active order to Sell 0.3 lots (picture above), you have to immediately place a Buy Stop order for 0.6 lots at 1.9830 (picture below).

4 - If the price goes up and hits the SL or TP at 1.9860, then you also have a profit of 30 pips!

5 - If the price goes down again without reaching any TP, then continue anticipating with a Sell Stop order for 1.2 lots, then a Buy Stop order for 2.4 lots, etc… Continue this sequence until you make a profit. Lots: 0.1, 0.3, 0.6, 1.2, 2.4, 4.8, 9.6, 19.2 and 38.4.

6 - In this example, I’ve used a 30/60/30 configuration (TP 30 pips, SL 60 pips and Hedging Distance of 30 pips). You can also try 15/30/15, 60/120/60. Also, you can try to maximize profits by testing 30/60/15 or 60/120/30 configurations.

7 - Now, considering the spread, choose a pair with a tight spread like EUR/USD. Usually the spread is only around 2 pips. The tighter the spread, the more likely you will win. Just let the price move to anywhere it likes; you’ll still make profits anyway.

Actually the whole “secret” to this strategy (if there is any), is to find a “time period” when the market will move enough to guarantee the pips you need to generate a profit. This strategy works with any trading method.

You can actually use any pip-range you want.

You just need to know during which time period the market has enough moves to generate the pips you need. Another important thing is to not end up with too many open buy and sell positions as you may eventually run out of margin.

Let me know what you guys think. I’ve been using this for a few months, and I’ve never had more than 7 positions open at the same time. To play it safe, I would only begin with a microlot (0.01 lots) for your first position for every $1000 you have in your account (so a .1 lot position if you have $10K in your account). Also, consider diversifying by using 2 or 3 different currency pairs so that you spread out your risk.

Look a bit a dangerous to me, is that a type of martingale principle I can see in there?

My guess is that it will wipe out at one point or another.

I have seen this strategy here 301 Moved Permanently

spike: yup, that’s the exact same strategy (only I saw it on a different forum)

purple: yes, there’s some Martingale in there, however, the premise is that the currency pair will not stay within a 30 pip range for too long, it will eventually shoot out 30 pips past either side of your “tunnel”. Martingale is dangerous when you keep increasing your positions in the same direction (I used to use Martingale on an RSI strategy and I blew through a $1,000 account in just one session…so I’m well aware of the dangers of Martingale!).