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How long do you hold a trade and are you profitable?

  • Poll

  • How long do you hold a trade and are you profitable?
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  • First Post: Edited Feb 10, 2010 12:16am Feb 3, 2010 4:43am | Edited Feb 10, 2010 12:16am
I am hosting this polling about the relationship between trade position duration and profitability. If you have actively traded for some time, feel free to take the polling.

Defintions:

Already Profitable: You are now consistently profitable, and you are confident that you can continue to be profitable
Not Yet Profitable: You are not yet profitable or you have some profit but have no confidence in your consistency.
I am a day trader: You may or may not classify yourselve as a scalper, but you don't normally hold a trade over-night.

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took a long 20 years ago still holding it..the profit is for my old ages...
StopLoss is for none belivers... Trust the Gurus..
Quoting lillelise
took a long 20 years ago still holding it..the profit is for my old ages...
I wouldn't call holding positions held for years as active trading, and so no option is for this.
Quoting kk007
I wouldn't call holding positions held for years as active trading, and so no option is for this.
do you recomend closing it now ?
StopLoss is for none belivers... Trust the Gurus..
Quoting lillelise
do you recomend closing it now ?
Wow... I don't take responsibility for your decision...
Quoting lillelise
do you recomend closing it now ?
HEDGE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

no no, CLOSE HALF MOVE TO BREAKEVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

no, um....... lemme think....

IT MUST BE A TOP SO REVERSE!!!!

hedge it, flip it, halve it, trail it, lose it, close it, stop, go bank it.
Congratulations ScalaFX for coming out of the closet!
Quoting kk007
I wouldn't call holding positions held for years as active trading, and so no option is for this.
I think lillelise is spinning the bollocks to ya. Bloody hell, you took him serious? btw, i hold trades for a day or two and I have been profitable for nearly a year
Quoting forexmick
I think lillelise is spinning the bollocks to ya. Bloody hell, you took him serious? btw, i hold trades for a day or two and I have been profitable for nearly a year
Yes. For a moment, I took him serious.
Thanks for your alert and your vote.
Quoting nubcake
HEDGE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

no no, CLOSE HALF MOVE TO BREAKEVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

no, um....... lemme think....

IT MUST BE A TOP SO REVERSE!!!!

hedge it, flip it, halve it, trail it, lose it, close it, stop, go bank it.
sort of funny recommendations... hahaha
Haha... so many profitable daytraders voted here... back to the days when I was studying some quite popular threads in this forum (J16, Jacko, etc.) posters kept telling me that daytrading is much more difficult than trading with D1 charts. This polling changes some of my earlier perception. Thanks for the voters!
StopLoss is for none belivers... Trust the Gurus..
Quoting kk007
Haha... so many profitable daytraders voted here... back to the days when I was studying some quite popular threads in this forum (J16, Jacko, etc.) posters kept telling me that daytrading is much more difficult than trading with D1 charts. This polling changes some of my earlier perception. Thanks for the voters!
I wouldn't take a poll on any forum too seriously if I were you..........
Quoting tradestar1
I wouldn't take a poll on any forum too seriously if I were you..........
Anything on this forum do you think I should take seriously?
Regarding trade duration. In general, even if you have an edge, if the duration is too short, the edge may not overcome transaction costs. Conversely, if the trade duration is too long, the frequency with which the edge presents itself may be insufficient to realistically generate sufficient income (and worse still you may incur additional transaction costs in the form of swap and opportunity costs etc).

Trade duration should be frequent enough to generate a statistically significant sample size within the time horizon that you've chosen to monitor your performance. but long enough to overcome transaction costs. This is where you can get into a bit of a mess as the two may be incompatible.

Its up to you to define what those are. Its a good question though, and I'm sure if you take the time to determine the answer you'll find it a useful exercise.

Ultimately though, the trade duration has to be something that you are comfortable with, and something thats achievable. You cant really day trade and hold down a full time job, and you cant swing or position trade on a part time basis if by nature youre predisposed to be a scalper.
Good post. Agree.

Quoting Razzle
Regarding trade duration. In general, even if you have an edge, if the duration is too short, the edge may not overcome transaction costs. Conversely, if the trade duration is too long, the frequency with which the edge presents itself may be insufficient to realistically generate sufficient income (and worse still you may incur additional transaction costs in the form of swap and opportunity costs etc).

Trade duration should be frequent enough to generate a statistically significant sample size within the time horizon that you've chosen to monitor...
I don't think polling results are of poor-quality on this forum, as far as the polling issues addressed properly. Here is the result from a polling (not by me). I believe it is more myth-scattering than myth-creating.
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Quoting lillelise
took a long 20 years ago still holding it..the profit is for my old ages...
It won't be the EURO then will it! hope it wasn't the Lira or the Mark. I expect it would be better to turn them into chocolate buttons this year.
{Promotion Removed}
Daytraders are the majority here! Great!
Right!

8 out of 22 (8+14) intraday traders unable to be profitable
0 out of 8 interday traders unable to be profitable

Yes, it is easier to be profitable with cross-day trading!

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50+ target met. Let me take a screenshot!
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