How to Trade Without a Market Bias: Lesson from a Green P&L

How to Trade Without a Market Bias: Lesson from a Green P&L

Dec 9, 2008

The latest videos from Thursday, December 4th and Friday, December 5th are posted on the Trade-Ideas YouTube Channel.  Each day took a different path on its way to a profitable P&L.  Our approach with the automation is to use 3 Long strategies and 3 Short strategies (not necessarily the flip of the other).  These strategies are run through our backtesting module, The OddsMaker, to ensure high odds of success before a dime of capital is committed.

2 Different Routes to the Endzone
Thursday’s trading session started from a deep hole thanks to several early hits when the strategies began trading.  With stop losses in place and a detemination not to step in manually, following the trading rules proved wise as the trades rebounded to the positive.  Some tense minutes to watch.
Friday started out very profitable – with one position in CWEI responsible for an entire point – before giving up almost half of that in a severe pullback.  Ultimately the strategies held onto their gains, but after we decided to step in and switch to manual control to get out of all the positions for a profit.
Thursday, December 4th
  • Trade-Ideas Automated Trading Bot executing trades via the Anvil platform through Assent Brokerage
  • Lot size: 100 share lots per trade
  • Trading rule: 3 Long and 3 Short strategies.  Hold positions for 15 minutes after entry trading only the 1st 2 minutes of the open
  • Results: Gross Profit of $184.22 (2 points)
  • Symbols traded (partial list): 13 Long (HANS, OXPS, JCOM, IDIX, FRED) and 3 Short (SONO, RYAAY, SWIM)
  • See the video in 3 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wd4A4On5fE&feature=channel
Friday, December 5th
  • Trade-Ideas Automated Trading Bot executing trades through TD AMERITRADE Brokerage (QuoteTracker version)  
  • Lot size: 100 share lots per trade
  • Trading rule: 3 Long and 3 Short strategies.  Hold positions for 15 minutes after entry trading only the 1st 2 minutes of the open
  • Results: Gross Profit of $148.50 (1.5 points)
  • Symbols traded: 5 Long (MXGL, RNDW, ODFL, OMCL, CWEI) and 6 Short (MVSN, CVTX, AFSI, MAXY, AMED, KNSY) 
  • See the video in 3.5 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TOM8ddAgm4
Notes:
  • Make sure to see the videos in high quality (link below the volume)
  • See the Trade-Ideas YouTube Channel that features these videos and those of previous days
  • Interested in automated trading through TD AMERITRADE? Visit our special offer for you
  • Interested in automated trading through Assent? Email info@trade-ideas.com for details
  • Lessons learned from automated trading that can save you time & $$ up the learning curve: Dave Mabe of Stocktickr