The week’s biggest (sovereign) CDS movers have been released, and we have some new entrants in the most endangered species list. While by now nobody will be surprised that the UK is a consistent top 2 player (coming in this week with $319 million in net notional derisking, this making it the 8th week or so the country has made the top 3), only behind Italy and its $452 million in net notional, and just in front of last week’s #1 Brazil, the presence of the United States at #4 should be a little unsettling. It has been months since the US appeared in the top 5. And just like in the long gold case, the same types of existential questions once again arise when the interest in US CDS picks up: who gets to pay off your contracts in the case of an event of default? Elsewhere, the presence of Korea and Turkey (or Australia) in the top 10 should not come as too surprising. On the other end, short covering was violent in CDS of Spain, Hungary and Portugal – Europe’s newest lepers. Is the CDS community concerned the EU can actually pull out a rabbit out of the hat that actually works for once? Hardly. The top 10 reriskers also saw the inclusion of France and long-forgotten insolvent Greece.
1. High probability setups with short profit targets
If you are not winning more than 75% of the time you’ll never make it as a professional trader. Whilst there are other components to success, he does make a very good point. The most common trading strategy employed by successful trader is to identify a high probability set up and couple that with an aggressive profit exit strategy that captures short term gains. For example, you might have a entry criteria that easily captures 15 points on average but you set your profit target at 6 points.
2. Adding to winning positions
Many people think all trades should lead to profit but you’ll find the most successful medium term traders on win 40-55% of the time. The difference between an amateur and a professional, when trading short to medium term trading systems, is their ability to maximum their cash on a trade when it’s winning. The Turtles, under the watchful eye o f Richard Dennis and Bill Eckardt, had a way to add to their huge winners up to 4 times. Very powerful. In order to maximize this strategy you will need to identify your R multiples which will be saved for another article.
3. Mechanical trailing profit stops
Knowing when to take profits can be the most mentally draining part of any trading system. Its not unusual to start trying to let profits run that the markets starts retracing and wiping out all your open profits. The way to overcome this emotional rollercoaster is to build mechanical trailing stops that maximize your profits on winning trades whilst minimizing giving back to much in open profits. (more…)
