Jeff Quinto skype

Skype meeting with Jeff Quinto:

Well, Jeff's a really affable character, it was an interesting hour   talking trading with him.  Even though my futures trading has only   produced small profits he thought I was doing well since I'm new to   trading futures and the markets have been, and are in, a difficult phase   to trade well. 

He explained that trading is really business of ensuring the balance is   right between winning and losing trades and making sure that the gains   clearly outweigh the losses.  The focus is not, and should not, be on   increasing the accuracy of winners (high win rate) but ensuring that the   strategy maximises the profits from the winning trades and minimises   losses from losing trades.  We talked about how my signals are typically   50% winners, 50% losers and that I need to create more of an advantage   by getting rid of trades that aren't working more quickly, by reducing   my initial stop size.  He advised that a trade should work  "immediately  and profoundly" otherwise it's a waste of time to wait  around while the  market does nothing, and in that time, another  opportunity could be  missed.  We talked about some of the statistics of  my performance.  One I  mentioned was that I kept records of the amount  of points the market  went against winning trades before they went the  my way, and that the  average stop required for the winning trades was  1.29 Nasdaq points. I  had reduced my stop from 4 points to 3.25 and  will now look at reducing  this down to 2.5 or 2.

In discussing my trailing stop he advised that it makes sense to take   this approach since you shouldn't restrict the amount the market is   willing to pay you.  You want to be available for those times the market   is willing to reward you and by using a runner you can do that.    However what he did say was that I should add more value to my trading   by moving my trailing stop manually, rather than let a platform do it,   and it's size should be adjusted to account for current market   conditions / volatility.  Trailing stops need to be dynamic depending on   the type of market conditions present, it's not a one size fits all   scenario.  I'll need to do some research on that aspect of my strategy.

My strategy is in some ways at odds to his Theory of Trading (being that   positions should only be taken in the direction of the inertia), since  I  am counter trend trading, and really do not consider the current  bias  of the market in my trading decisions, I just take all the buy or  sell  signals, so I could look at - only taking set-ups that are in line  with  some form of defined trend (?).   His theory is to enter in the   direction of the trend on retracements.   What I could do is incorporate   that in my strategy by adding a position to a winning position, on   retracements.   That would dovetail with his advice that you should   press your advantage.

We also spoke of indicators and he agreed with me that too many people   focus on that aspect of trading rather than the more important aspects   such as setting and sticking to a strict rules based method of trading.

Overall it was a useful hour, I liked his approach which is very much   encouragement to look at certain areas and think about what fits into   your own trading style, whilst keeping in mind the basic principles of   profitable trading.  Once I've slept on it I may have more to add.

In finishing he advised he was looking forward to getting an email from  me in the future, telling him about my successful trading.

I'm looking forward to that too.