Trendfinder Trading Systems

Today’s choppy up and down movement caused whipsaw losses in many Trendfinder systems today.  Days like today are not good for trend following systems.  I am testing methods of filtering out days like this for my trend following strategies.

All 5 Trendfinder systems entered trades today and all 5 had profitable days!

The market was up so much in early trading that only 2 Trendfinder systems entered trades today, and they were both winners.

Losses today – 0 for 3.

Trendfinder had another profitable day daytrading the emini Russell 2000 futures!  Lion caught the downtrend and didn’t let go.

Small profits with 5 wins and 1 loss today.

All 5 systems caught today’s uptrend with entries at various times.  Overall a really good day!

We were up nicely in 3 of the systems today until the late day selloff.  That’s the way it goes sometimes when you are daytrading intraday trends; many times the trend ends!

Today was a great day for trend following systems.

I monitor each of my systems daily and determine whether they should be traded live the next day or not.  Currently all my systems are in “no live trading” mode.  Argh…how can you make money if you aren’t trading?

Well, this reminds me of many quotes from various trading books I’ve read over the years about “sitting on hands, knowing when to trade, must preserve your capital, etc.”.

Yesterday (5/12/09) morning I saw a clear breakout to the downside after two inside days in a row in the Russell 2000 futures, and some of my systems had short signals.  I so wanted to turn on the systems (come on, at least one of them)!  But I didn’t.  I stuck to my rules.  I mean, why else create these rules?

Here is the lesson I am taking from this situation:  Each day I follow my rules, I am more and more confident in my trading abilities.

(As an aside, I would have lost $80 plus commissions and slippage if I had traded the system I wanted to turn on.)

cheers, gary