Category Archives: Broad Discussion of Trading Strategies

BROAD “HOW TO” DISCUSSIONS OF TRADING

What Is The Optimum Bet Size?

May 26, 2008 – 7:20 am

Most mechanical or system traders are familiar with the concept of R or risk per trade as a percent of equity – I believe that Van Tharp did a great deal to popularize the usage of R. When dealing with many such systems, R can pretty easily be varied by increasing leverage. The […]

By Bill | Comments (0)

My View of the Quant World Going Forward

May 19, 2008 – 6:45 am

A reader asked, “What’s your view of the quant world going forward? Especially in the institutional world and in Europe, Asia, etc? How about relative to “traditional” ways of investing, such as value or GARP?”
All I know is what I read and interpret from the outside of the industry, and what I guess […]

By Bill | Also posted in General Market Commentary | Comments (0)

Seven Key Definitions of Investment Risk

May 14, 2008 – 7:59 pm

Risk in trading and speculation, whoops!, excuse me, risk in “investing” is often spoken about, but rarely defined inside the conversation. Thankfully “risk” isn’t as nebulously and stupidly used a word as “alpha” is, but it still behooves us to ask ourselves what we mean when we talk about risk. I gave it […]

By Bill | Comments (1)

Do You Really Need More Information?

May 8, 2008 – 5:57 am

One thing I’ve tried focusing on, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, is simplification. It’s an extension of Occam’s Razor, wherein if two explanations for a phenomenon are viewed to be equally explanatory, the simpler explanation is the “best” one. This is a mental model or heuristic, and like all mental models, it ain’t […]

By Bill | Comments (7)

No Substitute for Brute Force

May 1, 2008 – 6:01 pm

Sometimes, there is just no substitute for brute force. After all, if you have 41 different possible strategies, that only equates to 1,640 possible blend-pairs to evaluate.
Be back in a while.

By Bill | Also posted in Specific Discussion of Trading Systems | Comments (1)