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BOOK YOUR FREE STRATEGY SESSION NOW >>The response was overwhelming - we had HUNDREDS of responses to our survey, and they have helped us refine our product so it covers EXACTLY what our readers need to know about managing portfolios of trading systems.
Reading your answers to the survey gave me a sense of incompleteness and anger, not towards you of course but towards that part of the trading industry that talks about misleading information, which is often also WRONG information... and wrong information in this business is very dangerous!
So I decided to react by clarifying some, often twisted, concepts. That's why I just finished a report on some fundamental issues related to portfolio management, issues I believe are key for you all.
Here they are:
The worst possible case is, of course, the sum of all Drawdowns, but that event is highly uncommon.
It all depends on when each TS Drawdown happen. If the strategies’ mix is built taking into account multiple DDs happening at the same time, the cooperation between strategies should result in a portfolio DD much better than then absolute Worst Case Scenario.
Trading Systems are developed to be able to tackle all market conditions, there are NO appropriate settings for low volatility markets phases because, if it were possible, the problem would then be to identify those phases. Generally speaking, it’s best to have a portfolio with maximum diversification so you can combine strategies that perform well in calm markets with others that perform better in high volatility periods. Of course, each strategy, if properly built, should resist in all phases without extreme losses.
It’s not needed but it helps. There are tools available you can use even if you can’t code and new code doesn’t have to be written. Of course, if you learn the skill the job becomes easier.
You can start with an Excel sheet or use dedicated software. Amibroker has probably the best instrument but it’s not easy to learn. MultiCharts also has a tool to merge strategies, and even if it has some limitations, it offers a good planning tool. Unger Academy uses proprietary software that, taking the TS daily profits as input, allows a detailed analysis of what could be the best mix to beat the markets.
Yes, in theory… In practice, it’s hard to do so without objective data. Also consider that it’s implicitly harder to diversify a portfolio if you trade discretionally, because as human beings the amount of markets and TS that can be analyzed (and traded) in a certain amount of time is limited, hence decreasing the amount of effective diversification.
Yes, many ways! And no way… Common sense is what should prevail. Consider first you need to have A rule.
As an unrelated example, a rule to check your weight could be to go on a diet this week if you weigh 1 kg more than the previous week. This is a mix of common sense and a (more or less) mathematical formula, that have no scientific base but that does the trick. In trading it’s the same, THE rule to know when a TS should be stopped does not exist, but it’s solid common sense to have A numeric rule so you can make decisions based on that instead of the gut feeling of the moment. In any case, rules are generally based on the degradation of performance with respect to the average system performance.
The minimum could be 2…
There’s no maximum except the one based on how much capital you have at your disposal to trade with.
Unfortunately, that’s very very difficult and shouldn’t become an objective (or you’ll get frustrated and lose your motivation). In trading it’s important to have a mid-long term view and thinking on short periods (weeks) it’s a way to proceed that is too random. The only valid rule is to never lose too much so that you can always keep playing!
It’s definitively possible and it’s one of the methods mostly used by many traders.
Yes, absolutely. It’s the best way to proceed. But beware of how the platform works: don’t get confused with the correct amount of contracts which should be placed at the broker’s side. In many cases, one strategy can be long, and the other short, so the net position for the broker is flat.
Andrea Unger here and I help retail traders to improve their trading, scientifically. I went from being a cog in the machine in a multinational company to the only 4-Time World Trading Champion in a little more than 10 years.
I've been a professional trader since 2001 and in 2008 I became World Champion using just 4 automated trading systems.
In 2015 I founded Unger Academy, where I teach my method of developing effecting trading strategies: a scientific, replicable and universal method, based on numbers and statistics, not hunches, which led me and my students to become Champions again and again.
Now I'm here to help you learn how to develop your own strategies, autonomously. This channel will help you improve your trading, know the markets better, and apply the scientific method to financial markets.
Becoming a trader is harder than you think, but if you have passion, will, and sufficient capital, you'll learn how to code and develop effective strategies, manage risk, and diversify a portfolio of trading systems to greatly improve your chances of becoming successful.
