Trading against the crowd

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Trading against the crowd

Postby Blinkers » Wed Sep 16, 2009 6:17 am

Hi Guys,

This is my first post as a member but I have been reading your posts for a few weeks now and have learned so much already. Thanks you all for your contributions.

I have been thinking about the whole general concept of trading I have been curious to know if the idea of trading the opposite to what your instinct tells you to do would work.. I am trying to understand the concept that if 90% of us newbies lose consistently does that not mean that we are doing the same thing wrong time and time again..hence if we can train ourselves to do exactly the opposite (sell instead of buy or vice versa) of what out current losing system says we should do would we not have a greater chance of success. That is as long as we have a good losing system. Even then one could have a better risk/reward ratio as it could be 3/1 maybe as if one is doing the opposite this converts to a 1/3 ratio. Apologies if this sounds very basic and I have no idea how to test out this concept as I still haven't a clue how to properly use indicators but I would be interested to hear if any of you have discussed this in here or am I losing the plot altogether..... Once again this is a fantastic forum and I look forward to hopefully being able to contribute something useful here in time to come...

Regards,

Blinkers....................
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Re: Trading against the crowd

Postby Edward Revy » Sun Sep 27, 2009 8:11 pm

Hi Blinkers and welcome!

Your concept has been actually puzzling the minds of many traders :D
I've seen a post or two somewhere on older forums from traders who asked newbies (almost seriously) to document their losing trades, sort of a writing a system, or even better launch a Signal service, so that everyone else can listen and do the opposite :mrgreen:

All beginners, if they lose, should consider themselves as those with an advantage to invert their trading styles. :mrgreen:
The challenge is: how to document it? Trading by pure instincts is difficult to put on paper.

However, the topic doesn't end here. There are theories used by more experienced traders, where traders try to analyse the most likely outcome/behavior of the general trading mass - mostly beginners - as those are being challenged to take actions during less familiar market situations: when good trending times end and give way to sudden price shifts (false breakouts, gaps, spikes toward Support/resistance lines with reversals, spikes against the trend, failure of common chart patters) - basically, everything a beginner learns during first months of trading can be challenged by the market when things start to go wrong = not according to the book :)

Regards,
Edward
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Re: Trading against the crowd

Postby Blinkers » Tue Oct 13, 2009 9:05 am

Hi Edward,

Thanks for your welcome... Also thanks for all your work in here. Lately I fear about whether or not I can crack forex trading. As a newbie I have been reading as much as possible over the paast few months but I don't seem to be getting anywhere.. I have taken in all the usual advice from the more experienced members and I now understand how difficult it is to be consistently profitable.... Also I take on board your comments in relation to my thread about doing the opposite to the crowd or even to ones instinct... I still believe ythat if its easy to lose say 100 pips a day consistently it must be possible to reverse the situation with the right frame of mind. Unfortunately I am not even close to being experienced enough to fully understand how to develop a system based on this concept but I do believe that its possible.. Anyway, I may test out a few ideas I have and put something up here in the future although I'm not sure if this topic appeals to your members.. Nevertheless thanks once again for your welcome and happy trading............

Blinkers.......
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