Day Trading & Forex Forum

bauer

I've been trading commodities since early 2005 with moderate success, portfolio growth of about 30% and climbing, using a positional system. Is there anyone else using a system (daily or positional) with the same success that I could look at incorporating?
TIA

josbarr

30% isnt bad

TWI

I trade systems across a number of commodities with time frames ranging from 5min to Daily.
Portfolio growth, although ultimately the goal, is not the best measure of a systems merit I feel as that really is dependent on leverage employed and says nothing of the characteristics of the methodology.
I work to develop non volatile return and high % of profitable trades, this makes trading a system so much easier on the psych. At the end of the day the hardest part is following, to the lot, the sigs and getting execution right. It does not take much testing to realise how slippage critical systems are and how working for that extra tick makes a significant difference over time.

__________________
"I refuse to tiptoe quietly through life
only to arrive safely at death"

minx

I trade systems across a range of products too and whilst the RoI% is important I also keep a very close watch on the drawdown percentage, my average drawdowns, drawdown duration and my WinRoI%:LossRoI% ratio. I

f you're experiencing short deep drawdowns then keep a very close eye on your leverage as a 'fat-tail' drawdown might just burn through all your capital.

Try also to build more than one system per product so at least if a problem arises with System A then you can still earn money whilst you take it out of action and repair it. Diversification should help the stability of your portfolio and reduce the risk of that perfect storm wiping you out in a short sharp shock.

skyasa

Collective2 got lot of trading system tools. Here is few more sites:

http://www.tradecommodityoptions.com...ng-systems.htm

oilfxpro

Commodities tend to be very volatile(this is my assumption),I would guess breakout systems would be ideal

One has to trade breakout systems day in day out to survive and be profitable

If a trader trades them randomly missing some day of the week,he is likely to be wiped out but if he traes everyday he is likely to trade on both winning and losing days instead of just choosing to trade on losing day

Oilfxpro

Riverboat

Really, I don't think that commodities are that volatile. I suppose breakout system are fine, but the main thing is to know what is going on!

voivod

Hi bauer,
I traded commodities for a while (soybeans mainly) using a 3 line moving average technique I learnt
from an old book I found by R.C. Allen called 'Professional Trading System'. The system worked pretty well and I made good money from it spreadbetting. However it needs money management systems to be built in to protect profits /cut losses. In the end I found the commodities were too racy for my small amount of capital. I'll be back to them in good time, after getting exerience in some calmer markets.