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Probability System Theory and Money Management

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  • Post #21
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  • Dec 9, 2006 4:33pm Dec 9, 2006 4:33pm
  •  permanentjaun
  • | Joined Oct 2006 | Status: Member | 655 Posts
If you're afraid of the highly improbable occuring how do you ever walk outside the house?

"I know it is highly improbable, but improbable is not the point."

Improbabilty IS the point. That's what the whole thread/idea is about. Do I accept that eventually it will happen? Yes. That is why I've said it would be wise to not increase your lot size after your account has increased until you have reached a certain point that perhaps you would need a total disaster of 20+ losing trades in a row.

Probability of 20 losing trades in row of a 1000 trades = less than .01%. That is in a 50% system. With a 60% system that would be less than .003%. Why are people so afraid of that?

There are many ways I see this system could work.

1. You triple down on the trades such that you cash in tremendously on those highly probable 3-4 consecutive losers. Instead of playing to win for just $1, you cash in $108 off of only 6 trades.

2. You realize that eventually the system will fail catastrophically. Play the system in periods. When you reach a certain profit level, take money off the table. My guess is that if you take off $500-$1000 here and there when you can, that it will add up to more than when the catastrophe hits and wipes out $10,000 or even $20,000.

3. You play for the long haul. Don't increase lot sizes for a long time. The highly improbable doesn't happen for a long time. Your account grows steadily past many key levels. You hit $50K, $100K, $150K without increasing your lot sizes. I am not going to say the account will grow like that, the point is to let the account grow beyond what your math would say you are capable of trading. You tell yourself you can handle 15 trades in a row easily, but you don't up your lots till you can handle 25. Strict money management.

I still have to question what happens to our accuracy when we don't make the signals for long/short random. If they were random then I would assume the system is 50% correct. Because if there is a strong uptrend and randomness selected to go long 50% and sell 50% of the time, we would be right 50%. What if we gave the system the ability to make a simple decision to go long when price breaks a trigger from below and sell when it breaks a trigger from the top? We would have been right almost all the time on the uptrend - 60-80% I would say.

Something as simple as that could give us the edge. Chance of a 12 loss streak out of 1000 trades in a 60% correct system? .9%

Simple safeguards in the system to make a random system more predictable is the name of the game. That is our edge. That is what every single trading system out there is doing. They are looking to be more than 50%. What does basing buy/sell orders based on the position of MACD do to our accuracy? What does a decision off of RSI tell us? If those indicators did not increase accuracy then people would not use them. I will say then that by a simple tool such as that will increase a system past 50%.

I'm trying to use a simpler tool of price action, because I like it. It doesn't lag, and doesn't become overbought/oversold. We are only concerned about price and not what level the RSI is at. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but when we say a 12 streak loss in a 60% correct system is .9% likely out of 1000 trades. Does that mean if we look at 100 sets of 1000 trades it will occur less than once? I analyze that percentage as saying, "in these 1000 trades there is a .9% chance of it actually occuring. It is not 100% going to happen in these 1000 trades."

Do you see why I don't know why we're so afraid of the improbable? I see it as another form of risk/reward. I'll be risking a lot yea, but what is the risk. If we bet $1 for every 1000 trades that there is not a 12 streak loss, would I be up $99 bucks?

". well now lets see what happens when that 12 loss streak happens, -100,-200,-400,-800,-1600,-3200,-6400,-12800,-25600,-51200, -102400, -204800. Add those all up and you have -409,500 *.01 = -$4,095"

You are also basing those numbers off of a system I posted for sake of argument. What happens if the system we actually uses only looks for 20 pips each trade? The losses will be -20, -40, -80, -160, -320, -640, - 1280, -2560, -5120, -10240, -20480 = -$409.40 dollars. The next trade would then be risking $409.60 to win the 20 pips. I think a $50K account can handle a trade of less than one standard lot, agree?

You are correct when you ask, is it worth it to risk so much for those pips? It might be since I just showed you the system can be very managable money wise. We don't need to look for 100 pip SL and TP.

What would happen if we tripled on each trade to really maximize profits?
We'll start by doubling the first loss and then triple afterwards to make it
-20, -40, -120, -360, ,-1080, -3240, -9720, -29160, -87480, -262440, -787320, -2361960 = -3542940 = -35429.40. The next trade would risk 7085880 to profit $35429.40 off of the 12 trades.

Obviously adapting a triple up strategy, although highly profitable, eventually runs into the problem of lack of capital quickly. It could be used perhaps only for the first couple losses, then the double up strategy to only cover losses.

ALSO! You don't need to double up at all or use it forever. What if you only matched losses to bet that you'll hit those streaks of winners to profit? Meaning we don't care about not profiting on the losing streaks, but we'd like to profit on the winning streaks since they are likely to happen too. Your "double down line" would be -20, -20, -40, -80, -160, -320, -640. You can see it holds off the doubling for a few rounds. So instead of being at -1280 loss on the 7th trade we're still only at -640.

There are many ways this idea of using probabilties can be used. It's not just 100 SL 100 TP. It's not just double down or triple down after each trade. So why would this still fail miserably? Matt
 
 
  • Post #22
  • Quote
  • Dec 9, 2006 6:07pm Dec 9, 2006 6:07pm
  •  hilmy83
  • Joined Jun 2006 | Status: Do NOT tilt | 5,708 Posts
Quoting permanentjaun
Disliked
Read your article and I agree with it. It strengthens what I've been saying. They said the problem with gamblers is they don't have the bankroll of the casino. Gamblers only need one or two bad streaks and they're out of the game, but if they had more money to play and get back to the expected returns they'd be ok. That's why I'm saying this strategy needs to be implemented on a micro lot account in the beginning.

If you can survive the long haul you'll be good. Money management. Slim initial profits. Be patient!
Ignored
this is still theory until proven correct? Forward test this and show us the results
Working towards CME membership
 
 
  • Post #23
  • Quote
  • Dec 9, 2006 6:14pm Dec 9, 2006 6:14pm
  •  aicccia
  • | Joined Jun 2006 | Status: Carpe Diem | 854 Posts
Quoting permanentjaun
Disliked
If you're afraid of the highly improbable occuring how do you ever walk outside the house?

"I know it is highly improbable, but improbable is not the point."

Improbabilty IS the point. That's what the whole thread/idea is about. Do I accept that eventually it will happen? Yes. That is why I've said it would be wise to not increase your lot size after your account has increased until you have reached a certain point that perhaps you would need a total disaster of 20+ losing trades in a row.

Probability of 20 losing trades in row of a 1000 trades = less than .01%. That is in a 50% system. With a 60% system that would be less than .003%. Why are people so afraid of that?

There are many ways I see this system could work.

1. You triple down on the trades such that you cash in tremendously on those highly probable 3-4 consecutive losers. Instead of playing to win for just $1, you cash in $108 off of only 6 trades.

2. You realize that eventually the system will fail catastrophically. Play the system in periods. When you reach a certain profit level, take money off the table. My guess is that if you take off $500-$1000 here and there when you can, that it will add up to more than when the catastrophe hits and wipes out $10,000 or even $20,000.

3. You play for the long haul. Don't increase lot sizes for a long time. The highly improbable doesn't happen for a long time. Your account grows steadily past many key levels. You hit $50K, $100K, $150K without increasing your lot sizes. I am not going to say the account will grow like that, the point is to let the account grow beyond what your math would say you are capable of trading. You tell yourself you can handle 15 trades in a row easily, but you don't up your lots till you can handle 25. Strict money management.

I still have to question what happens to our accuracy when we don't make the signals for long/short random. If they were random then I would assume the system is 50% correct. Because if there is a strong uptrend and randomness selected to go long 50% and sell 50% of the time, we would be right 50%. What if we gave the system the ability to make a simple decision to go long when price breaks a trigger from below and sell when it breaks a trigger from the top? We would have been right almost all the time on the uptrend - 60-80% I would say.

Something as simple as that could give us the edge. Chance of a 12 loss streak out of 1000 trades in a 60% correct system? .9%

Simple safeguards in the system to make a random system more predictable is the name of the game. That is our edge. That is what every single trading system out there is doing. They are looking to be more than 50%. What does basing buy/sell orders based on the position of MACD do to our accuracy? What does a decision off of RSI tell us? If those indicators did not increase accuracy then people would not use them. I will say then that by a simple tool such as that will increase a system past 50%.

I'm trying to use a simpler tool of price action, because I like it. It doesn't lag, and doesn't become overbought/oversold. We are only concerned about price and not what level the RSI is at. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but when we say a 12 streak loss in a 60% correct system is .9% likely out of 1000 trades. Does that mean if we look at 100 sets of 1000 trades it will occur less than once? I analyze that percentage as saying, "in these 1000 trades there is a .9% chance of it actually occuring. It is not 100% going to happen in these 1000 trades."

Do you see why I don't know why we're so afraid of the improbable? I see it as another form of risk/reward. I'll be risking a lot yea, but what is the risk. If we bet $1 for every 1000 trades that there is not a 12 streak loss, would I be up $99 bucks?

". well now lets see what happens when that 12 loss streak happens, -100,-200,-400,-800,-1600,-3200,-6400,-12800,-25600,-51200, -102400, -204800. Add those all up and you have -409,500 *.01 = -$4,095"

You are also basing those numbers off of a system I posted for sake of argument. What happens if the system we actually uses only looks for 20 pips each trade? The losses will be -20, -40, -80, -160, -320, -640, - 1280, -2560, -5120, -10240, -20480 = -$409.40 dollars. The next trade would then be risking $409.60 to win the 20 pips. I think a $50K account can handle a trade of less than one standard lot, agree?

You are correct when you ask, is it worth it to risk so much for those pips? It might be since I just showed you the system can be very managable money wise. We don't need to look for 100 pip SL and TP.

What would happen if we tripled on each trade to really maximize profits?
We'll start by doubling the first loss and then triple afterwards to make it
-20, -40, -120, -360, ,-1080, -3240, -9720, -29160, -87480, -262440, -787320, -2361960 = -3542940 = -35429.40. The next trade would risk 7085880 to profit $35429.40 off of the 12 trades.

Obviously adapting a triple up strategy, although highly profitable, eventually runs into the problem of lack of capital quickly. It could be used perhaps only for the first couple losses, then the double up strategy to only cover losses.

ALSO! You don't need to double up at all or use it forever. What if you only matched losses to bet that you'll hit those streaks of winners to profit? Meaning we don't care about not profiting on the losing streaks, but we'd like to profit on the winning streaks since they are likely to happen too. Your "double down line" would be -20, -20, -40, -80, -160, -320, -640. You can see it holds off the doubling for a few rounds. So instead of being at -1280 loss on the 7th trade we're still only at -640.

There are many ways this idea of using probabilties can be used. It's not just 100 SL 100 TP. It's not just double down or triple down after each trade. So why would this still fail miserably? Matt
Ignored

Your math is wrong though for how imporbable it is. You're basing your math off a bell shaped curve. The financial markets do not follow a bell-shaped curve, they follow a rat-tail distribution. It's like bell-shaped curve except its not nearly as thin at the ends. So what you say is "improbable" or "very imporbable", is much more likely than you relize.
 
 
  • Post #24
  • Quote
  • Dec 9, 2006 7:49pm Dec 9, 2006 7:49pm
  •  permanentjaun
  • | Joined Oct 2006 | Status: Member | 655 Posts
Quoting aicccia
Disliked
Your math is wrong though for how imporbable it is. You're basing your math off a bell shaped curve. The financial markets do not follow a bell-shaped curve, they follow a rat-tail distribution. It's like bell-shaped curve except its not nearly as thin at the ends. So what you say is "improbable" or "very imporbable", is much more likely than you relize.
Ignored
What is not bell shaped curve though? We're talking about how many times in a row a system loses. So it's not the market that isn't bell shaped, it would be the system. The system defines what a losing trade is. What is a system doing if its losing 20 times in a row consistently? With only 2 options, up or down, for a system to lose 20 times in a row would prove that it is in fact not 50% successful. The rarity of such an occurance would be nearly 1 in a million. So your strategy would either have to be abandoned or altered to be able to trade with less than 50%.
 
 
  • Post #25
  • Quote
  • Dec 9, 2006 10:15pm Dec 9, 2006 10:15pm
  •  Leugimp
  • | Joined Dec 2006 | Status: Member | 1,385 Posts
You do not seem to be understanding me. Even if you gain 100 pips every single day for a year on the strategy you are describing, even if your stop loss is 10 pips, look at what you have accomplished without being able to scale up or down your lot size. You have earned $1.00 per day or approx $250. Thats with no loss, which according to your strategy, you virtually dont have any, and assuming a win every trading day for a year with the win being 100 pips. Basically you made .5% a year on your money and took all of those risks mentioned in other posts. Better yet, lets say you make 1000 pips per day and win every day, you make $2500 a year or 5% per year on your money. I can really think of much easier ways and safer ways to achieve that kind of performance or better. Remember, this is assuming all wins every day and no spread/commission. If you raise your lot value, your MM will be shot and you will go bust on 50K quick so your stuck at a .01 pip value and cant really scale up. Do you still think it is worth it?
Man who scratches ass should not bite fingernails
 
 
  • Post #26
  • Quote
  • Dec 9, 2006 11:04pm Dec 9, 2006 11:04pm
  •  FxBabe
  • | Joined Oct 2006 | Status: Member | 93 Posts
I admit I have not read every single post in this thread.

How many of you can toss a coin and get 10 heads or 10 tails in a row?? The chances of that is small. But it does happen. I was actually looking at this few weeks ago, on GBP/USD 30 tp and 30 sl, maximum number of consecutive loss over 2 years was 16.
Now if you start with 0.1 lot, then..

0.1 lot-0.2 lot-o.4 lot ...
so after losing 16 times in a row its 3276.8 lots. If your leverage is 1:400 then you need (3276.8 *100,000) / 400= £819200 in your account.
(Im not sure if thats how you calculate using leverage, if not please point out).

How many of us have got that kind of money in our account?? If you have then u can make money in a less riskier way. For the majority of us this method is not practical.
 
 
  • Post #27
  • Quote
  • Edited 11:27pm Dec 9, 2006 11:18pm | Edited 11:27pm
  •  shahfx
  • | Joined Apr 2004 | Status: Member | 86 Posts
Quoting FxBabe
Disliked
I, maximum number of consecutive loss over 2 years was 16.
Now if you start with 0.1 lot, then..

0.1 lot-0.2 lot-o.4 lot ...
so after losing 16 times in a row its 3276.8 lots. If your leverage is 1:400 then you need (3276.8 *100,000) / 400= £819200 in your account.
(Im not sure if thats how you calculate using leverage, if not please point out).
Ignored
the question is do u think willing to risk 9830.4 to just offset or cover ur $3 that we lost on the first trade..
 
 
  • Post #28
  • Quote
  • Dec 9, 2006 11:20pm Dec 9, 2006 11:20pm
  •  andersenws
  • | Joined Apr 2006 | Status: Member | 440 Posts
I have also read through this thread, and my two cents is this.

Expectancy = Win% * WinSize - Loss% * LossSize

Positive expectancy is a positive system. Increase your expectancy any way you can, and you will be in good shape. Quit trying to beat the system, and start trying to be a better trader. Bottom line. There are many profitable systems, this is probably the worst one (if it even is profitable).

andersenws
"Youth is the trustee of prosperity." - Benjamin Disraeli
 
 
  • Post #29
  • Quote
  • Dec 9, 2006 11:24pm Dec 9, 2006 11:24pm
  •  permanentjaun
  • | Joined Oct 2006 | Status: Member | 655 Posts
What happens if the system utilizes a 10 pip TP/SL or a 20 TP SL? How many trades per day would it trigger?

What happens when you institute a system of tripling down on the first few trades to make more than 60 pips off of 3 trades and it is like you had made 5 winning trades?

What if the idea is used to scalp? What if the idea is used on larger lots but the multiplier on losing trades is only 1.1 or 1.2 so that you bank large off the winning streaks, cover the losses on the losing trades, win a little on the winner that ends the losing streak, and the low multiplying factor allows you to stay in your margin limits?

There is more than one way to play this. It's not just doubling. Its not just tripling. Its not just matching losses with profits. Its playing the streaks. You can win more on losing streaks than winning streaks depending on how you manage your money.

Double down line for 1.1 multiplier= 1 - 1.1 - 2.31 - 4.851 - 10.1871. If you use 5 minilots for a typical trade then on the 5th trade you'd be risking about 50 minilots or 5 standard lots.

Lets say you make 10 trades. 50/50. 5 win 5 lose. You lose the first win the second. Pay out for 2 trades is 5(-20) + 5.5(20) = +10 pips profit. Over 10 trades you make 50 pips for 5 minilots which is $250. If you're only looking for 20 pip moves do you think you could make 10 trades in a week automatically? $250 X 52 = $13000.

With a $100K account that is 13% return. I see 10 trades as very likely in a week with a 20 TP/SL.

There are many ways to play the system. Each trader would have to decide what options are available to them and are best for their situation.

The idea of the thread was to discuss the probabilities associated with trading and money management techniques that could capitalize on the percentages. I've looked at many strategies and realized that the majority of them end out the same even if they require complicated scenerios to materialize or if its a simple "wait for 20 pips from open and take 50 pips profit." This led to me now believeing that sometimes it doesn't matter what we do. There are bad months and good months. It is the law of large numbers. Eventually the system will show how accurate it is. If a system has one good month is it going to always be 80% correct? No. If it's 50% correct it will show its ugly head in due time.

What is a bad month for a system? Is it 20 bad trades in a row? Statistics will say that is incredibly unlikely. That is what I'm looking to play off of. ROI are there if you look to play the streaks. The chance of winning trades occuring in streaks is just as likely as losing trades occuring in streaks and as I've shown, you can win even more if you use certain tactics to triple down on losers. It all depends on the trader and their situation.
 
 
  • Post #30
  • Quote
  • Dec 9, 2006 11:31pm Dec 9, 2006 11:31pm
  •  GreatYves
  • | Joined Aug 2006 | Status: AKA DareDevil | 527 Posts
Your taking way too much risk with a martingale system like this.

At the end, you will have your long 15 loosing strikes in a row. This is called momentum and it may last even more. Everytime it only one chance out of two. Not big...

I prefer to trade all risk capital on a good trend signal instead of a martingale system on a flip of a coin.

So you don't waste precious trade signal betting one buck....

Learn the forex and proper money management.

For martingale go to vegas, the roulette is much faster...
Harmonics and Pitchfork using korHarmonics from TradingArsenal
 
 
  • Post #31
  • Quote
  • Dec 9, 2006 11:44pm Dec 9, 2006 11:44pm
  •  iya
  • | Joined Oct 2006 | Status: always protect yourself | 129 Posts
Quoting permanentjaun
Disliked
Lets say you make 10 trades. 50/50. 5 win 5 lose. You lose the first win the second. Pay out for 2 trades is 5(-20) + 5.5(20) = +10 pips profit.
Ignored
This is absolutely unrealistic with spread: Assuming a normal distribution (which isn't even the case) and a 3 pip spread you would need a 23 pip movement to win and a 17 pip movement to loose. That's not a .5 chance of winning, but .26!

Quoting permanentjaun
Disliked
There are bad months and good months. It is the law of large numbers. Eventually the system will show how accurate it is.
Ignored
What you don't understand is that the law of large numbers is what makes the system loose in the long run. Just imagening you're equity curve should make that clear. The only possible way I could imagine to trade it succesfully is if you quit while on top.
 
 
  • Post #32
  • Quote
  • Dec 9, 2006 11:52pm Dec 9, 2006 11:52pm
  •  permanentjaun
  • | Joined Oct 2006 | Status: Member | 655 Posts
Quoting iya
Disliked
This is absolutely unrealistic with spread: Assuming a normal distribution (which isn't even the case) and a 3 pip spread you would need a 23 pip movement to win and a 17 pip movement to loose. That's not a .5 chance of winning, but .26!


What you don't understand is that the law of large numbers is what makes the system loose in the long run. Just imagening you're equity curve should make that clear. The only possible way I could imagine to trade it succesfully is if you quit while on top.
Ignored
I mentioned in the first post that right now I'm only discussing theory. I understand that as soon as you enter a trade you are automatically placed closer to your SL. Thats why I said in the first post the TP/SL levels would have to be adjusted to give either side a fair chance.

How does the law of large numbers make it lose in the long run? if we accept the system to only be 50% correct then we expect losers and accuont for it in our strategy. I also mentioned that this strategy could be trade such that you take money off the table to protect it. If your account can handle the typical 5-8 loss streak then it should be able to survive long enough to get to a 10-15 loss streak. If you take money off the table before hand then you're protecting it from the catastrophic failure that may or may not occur. I've said all this already.

andersenws - This is not a system yet. I've mentioned that it might be most useful on a grid system, but I havent laid anything out in writing to trade by. This is just theory. Go ahead and say it's the worst system ever, even though there is no system here. This is a strategy just like a trailing stop is a strategy. You can't enter a trade based on a trailing stop.
 
 
  • Post #33
  • Quote
  • Dec 10, 2006 5:09am Dec 10, 2006 5:09am
  •  silverpike
  • | Joined Jun 2006 | Status: Member | 39 Posts
How odd that 3 pages of this thread have been written, and not a single one references the essay I wrote earlier this year:

http://www.forexfactory.com/forexfor...ead.php?t=7672

In this essay, you will find a reference to the Monte-Carlo method, and a discussion of risk-of-ruin.
 
 
  • Post #34
  • Quote
  • Dec 10, 2006 9:18am Dec 10, 2006 9:18am
  •  andersenws
  • | Joined Apr 2006 | Status: Member | 440 Posts
You keep repeating that there is a 50% chance of winning. False. The market can move sideways, which will kill both longs and shorts, unless your limits are small enough. But then you might be missing out on some profits.

Also, I didn't mean to say it was the worst system ever, it's just that one could get such better odds than 50% if one studied and read instead of trying to "cheat" the system. One could trade divergence or pin bars alone off of the daily's and make more money than this. And those techniques aren't even that hard to learn and spot.

andersenws
"Youth is the trustee of prosperity." - Benjamin Disraeli
 
 
  • Post #35
  • Quote
  • Dec 10, 2006 11:05am Dec 10, 2006 11:05am
  •  Leugimp
  • | Joined Dec 2006 | Status: Member | 1,385 Posts
If you want to use a system like this, use the idea as a combination with a system with a higher win expectancy such as %70 or so, if you can find one. Then you do not need to worry about doubling up, you can just trade the system same lot size at all times and things should work out better or safer for you. Then when you reach certain equity levels, you can just scale up lot size. Then again, it wouldn't be this system anymore would it?
Man who scratches ass should not bite fingernails
 
 
  • Post #36
  • Quote
  • Dec 10, 2006 6:08pm Dec 10, 2006 6:08pm
  •  brentmack
  • | Joined Apr 2006 | Status: Commissioner of Autotrading | 462 Posts
Quoting permanentjaun
Disliked
Look at what happens if you lost 3 trades in a row and won on the fourth. You would have lost 900 pips, but gained 1800 for a total profit of +900 pips. So on four trades you made 900 pips, where if you had won all 4 you would have only made 400.
Ignored
Very impressive posts, Permanentjuan. There's a ton of numbers in them and you've given this a lot of thought. And I know you're talking theory - but in theory or reality, the 50/50 with 100 S/L and 100 TP formula is the Martingale technique and almost certain to end up in flames.

As Leugimp tried pointing out a time or two, I believe the above numbers and elsewhere are mis-calculated. Rather than being up 900 pips after the fourth trade, you'd only be up 100. Martingale doesn't turn every loser into a winner. It simply consolidates all of your losses into one eventual winner - if you've got the staying power to hang on that long.

In one of the Vegas documents he discusses a roulette table that was abuzz in excitement. Either red or black had hit so many times in a row that everybody just "knew" that it was going to hit the other color on the next turn, or the next turn, or the next turn...

After the entire table had been wiped out, Vegas inquired about the known record of consecutive hits on the same color at that table. I believe the number was 31 times.

Martingale is a tempting concept - but it's a well-known loser.
 
 
  • Post #37
  • Quote
  • Dec 11, 2006 9:59am Dec 11, 2006 9:59am
  •  nodoodahs
  • | Joined Dec 2006 | Status: Member | 1 Post
Martingale is a winner in theory only, as one of the assumptions of Martingale theory is unlimited funds.

<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o></o>

IMO the key strategy is anti-martingale.

<o></o>

Imagine your equity is some fixed amount, like $100K. You could risk an equal amount on every trade, take a martingale, or take an anti-martingale.

<o></o>

If that equal amount is $10K as a stop loss, after one streak of 10 losses in a row (a very real possibility), you are bankrupted. Depending on your market, you may not have had margin to continue after loss 8 or 9. If you use $6.7K as your stop, you still have a 1.5% chance of bankruptcy given the statistics by Anthony Baker on post #10.

<o></o>

If you take a martingale strategy, and have ten losses in a row, you should have doubled down your risk amount and position size after each loss. Therefore, your 11th bet should be 2 to the 10th times your first bet. In order for all 11 bets to fit within $100K of equity, your initial bet should have been sized with a stop loss of $48.50. Huh?

<o></o>

Another martingale – your initial equity is $1mil and you're playing with a market at $10K initial margin and a stop loss of $1.5K per contract. Start with trading one contract. After the seventh loss in a row, where you just traded 64 contracts and lost $96K in the seventh trade ALONE, to play a martingale on the 8th trade requires $1,280,000 of initial margin – you are out of the martingale after just seven losses. Note that this calculation is driven by the relationship of initial margin and initial equity; if your initial equity is 100 times your initial margin, you can only take 7 losses in a martingale. If your initial equity is ONE THOUSAND times your initial margin, you can take ten losses in a row.

<o></o>

Try the anti-martingale. Base your stop loss is based on the dollar volatility of the contract, some multiple of the average true daily range, and your position size is based on that stop being no more than R percent of your equity, with R being maybe 1% to 5%. In a losing streak, this system will trade fewer and fewer contracts, until the ATR multiple is more than R, at which point, you stop playing until you add equity. No chance of bankruptcy, and a built-in point at which you stop trading that contract.
 
 
  • Post #38
  • Quote
  • Dec 14, 2006 9:55am Dec 14, 2006 9:55am
  •  Mecer
  • | Joined Nov 2006 | Status: Member | 20 Posts
Hello people,

I apologize if this post offends some folk over here, but I have read quite a few of permanentjaun’s lengthy threads and theories. They are great and having a creative lateral thinking mind is a real gift. I involve myself with statistics as well from time to time and with regards to the threads, this one included the following:
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o> </o>

It would appear that permantnentjaun is forgetting one very obvious and necessary fact to be in place before a system could be considered a trade option. All this 50/50 stuff is all fine and well IF you somehow get a positive expectancy from the rule set. With NO positive expectancy (aka EDGE), money management in any form is worth squat. In this and other cases made by him, I would venture to say that at most, it will simply magnify a horizontal (break even) equity curve less brokarage and carry trade interest.

<o> </o>

I wish for once that permanetjaun would actually do some actual research into the theories before getting too exited; I have yet to find one set of examples or spreadsheets or any sign that he actually puts effort into some real research. As stated, it is fantastic to have a lateral thinking mind, but perhaps a slight adjustment on his behalf toward actual research, could pay off greatly when he starts using his experience from real research when thinking up new magic.

<o> </o>

It is great to fly on clouds of probability and odds etc, but like with all things that go up, they have to come back down, unless there is an opposing force keeping them up, in this case that would be a positive expectancy which is totally different than simple 50/50 odds etc.

<o> </o>

Saying that 50/50 odds will create an equal amount of events to make or loose equal amounts of money is just a complicated way of saying that you start with say $1000-00 today, you do 5000 trades and in 4 years time you still basically have $1000-00 excluding brokarage which would eat away at the capital after each trade and possible carry trade interest.

<o> </o>

The only way to make profit is to say sure, we have 50/50 chance of having and equal amount of events make or loose an UNEQUAL amount of money ( the loosing side HAS to be smaller than the winning side ) It is as simple as that.

<o> </o>

The worse the probability, say 30/70, the larger the winning side needs to be in proportion to the loosing side (not per trade basis, but on average).

<o> </o>

It is this balancing and adjusting to the one side if the other side of probabilities increase or decrease that give the edge to move forward and not remain stagnant no matter how many trades get’s placed.

<o> </o>

It is this simple, honestly it is !!!

<o> </o>

It’s easy to loose people in a info overload flood on a thread like this and thus the points I address here will probably never be addressed.

<o> </o>

Blessings,

<o> </o>

Mecer
 
 
  • Post #39
  • Quote
  • Dec 14, 2006 10:33pm Dec 14, 2006 10:33pm
  •  dukeofdents
  • | Joined Sep 2006 | Status: Member | 497 Posts
Here's my down home redneck thinking on money management, I'm not a math whiz, or anything, just a blue-collar dude,


I put 5% of my account on a trade. I only take 1 trade at a time. With 50:1 account leverage I have 250% in the market. That's 2.5/1 real leverage, sometimes I will go all in at 10%, being 5/1 real leverage. That's all I do. Why would the fact that you lost your last trade have any effect on your next trade whatsoever? Again, I'm not a math whiz, but, if I flip a coin right now, it doesn't matter at all how many times I flipped it before. What changes about the coin between the first time I flip it and the 20th time I flip it? It will still be a 50/50 bet. If I use a different coin every time it will be the same.
"The time to act is when others show signs of tire." --W.D. Gann
 
 
  • Post #40
  • Quote
  • Dec 15, 2006 7:24am Dec 15, 2006 7:24am
  •  Monaco
  • | Joined Aug 2006 | Status: Pro Trader | 93 Posts
Quoting nodoodahs
Disliked
Martingale is a winner in theory only, as one of the assumptions of Martingale theory is unlimited funds.
Ignored
Here is my live experience with Martingale from a long time ago with horse racing...

When I was very young I heard about a way to gamble that was guaranteed to win. This guy I met told me that in British horse racing all you have to do is choose a course say for example Epsom. They will have 5 races or thereabouts a day and the odds are that the favourite will win one for those races. The strategy was to keep doubling up until you win. It made sense to me and I thought lets go for it. Sure enough I walked into a betting shop in London put a bet on and the favourite won the race. Delighted I walked out of the betting shop with my winnings. Next day I went in and the favourite lost the first race but won the second race - again I was delighted. This went on for several days until one day I walked into the betting shop surrounded by old guys smelling of yesterdays whiskey and stale cigarettes (that should have been a clue to me right there to stop doing this). Anyway I put a GBP10 bet on the first horse - LOST. 2nd race GBP20 - LOST. 3rd race - GBP40 - LOST. I had never been past the 3rd race before and I started to panic and I was broke. I ran home and got some more money. 4th race GBP80 - the bet is on and the race starts...my heart is pounding as fast as the horse is running - LOST. I was devasted but I could not stop now, I knew I had to win. 5th and final race of the day. I approached the guy behind the counter to give him GBP160 and he told me that he had been watching my bets and asked me what I was doing. I told him the system and he told me to walk away as he had over the years seen many systems come and go and many more losers. I looked around to see the other gamblers and decided I never wanted to be like them at all...walked out the betting shop and haven't been back since. When I got back home I wanted to see what would have happened if I had stayed for the 5th race - the favourite won the race and I would have been vindicated but it would have meant I would have risked GBP310 to win just GBP10. I thought to myself I should have had the guts to do that but then again was I willing to experience a cardiac arrest in that 5th race and all for GBP10! My conclusions were that what may be good in theory is not healthy in reality.

By the way if anyone wants to adopt this strategy for horse racing then I will gladly be your bookmaker!!

Have a great trading day!

Monaco
 
 
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