EASY-MONEY by cointoss

'random entry and trailing stop' is gonna be the biggest thing here since Dantes 'Pin bars'. I just know it.

OK

10 ticks profit
10 ticks stop loss

spread 2 ticks.

To get to your stop, you need an 8 tick move
To get to your target you need a 12 tick move

Your win rate on a random entry system would be 40%

You'd lose the spread.

Yeah - but imagine the excitement!

You have to get a hell of a lot more creative than a trailing stop

I wonder how much productive time is actually WASTED by people testing this kind of garbage. Someone should hand Van Tharp a bloody bill for the damage he's done. He can expect a hoof in the plums from me should our paths ever cross

OF course, the spread is a cost and will always be there no matter what strategy or what method you use - most liquid markets are only one spread, but whatever it is, it should easily be absorbed anyway.

It will happen, but not often that the market moves in your favour by exactly 11 points, or exactly 9 points against you, but I would guess that at least 95% of my winning trades runs on from where I close and run on from where I'm stopped by at least 2 points, if not a lot more.

A coin toss entry is a ridiculous idea any way - if the market in question is going in a clear identifiable direction, why toss a coin. It seems a lazy gamblers sort of strategy to me.

Exactly.
If you trade discretionary, it is retarded to flip a coin.
It is a very useful excersise in trade management all the same.

Where a "coin toss" comes into its own is with automated trading.
Why?
Because automation is dumb f**k retarded, so random entry is often no worse,
or in most cases better than an apparently more complex entry strategy based
on loads of crap that works no better.
Its how and where you get out that decides your PnL...

Simon Kerr talks to David Harding - The Hedge Fund Journal
Go to the bottom of the above link.
Read the absolute last paragraph.
That may put randomness in perspective, then again it may not
The rest of the interview is quite interesting as well...

I honestly don't understand why people want to flip a coin when all you have to do is wait for the market to show a direction, then follow it.

gambling aka poor money management and risk management