I honestly don’t know where the markets are heading next. I cannot predict where and when the top and bottom shall take place. But I learnt it hard way, what I should do "stay" or "quit" when price is traveling beyond my reference levels.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

SAR, the Number , a math not a myth!
A Trader's view on What is SAR Trading and How to Trade on SAR system – Post # 3


Click here to check the previous Post-1 & Post-2 on this series about SAR Trading .

What are all cannot be a SAR system?

I shall consider only following two criteria to evaluate and accept any system as a mechanical system.

o   Annual returns
o   Capital depreciation in the sideways markets.

1.       I shall not go for a system, which shows less than 200 % annual returns in the back test or paper trades. If you have got 200% returns in the back test, you can realise only 40-50% returns in real trading that too only if you religiously follow your system with 100% commitment.

The deficit between the returns from back test and real trading are because of the typical errors we tend to commit when we follow SAR Trading systems. Missing the trades after continuous whipsaws, increasing the trade qty on just few trades which would miserably fail, too much of prediction and assumption due to references from media and other external sources, doing some poor intraday trades to recover positional losses, early entry and exits etc.. are some of the factors which can cause a huge deficit in the returns between paper and real trading.

 In my experience, it is very difficult for any trader to remain resilient when it is gloomy. Above said mistakes bound to happen in the initial days when you trade with SAR system.

So, go for the system which shows >300% annual returns in back test, which will definitely keep you upbeat.

2.       Any system which eats more than 75% of your capital in the sideways market should not be considered for SAR Trading. Don’t get panic about 75 % losses. You may hear from market men that it is not wise to lose more than certain % of capital in a single trade or in a certain period. But this will not work with mechanical trading. Fact and my experience are different. Any mechanical trading system will eat at least 50-75 % of your capital in sideways market at a stretch (in a short period of time and not in a single trade). But, if you remain in trading without staying away from the system after such painful loss, you will definitely realise the profit which would be greater than the loss you suffered.

Above 2 criteria are mandatory to me to decide if a SAR System is suitable to proceed further.

A point to note while selecting a SAR system:

This entire note is only a suggestion from me, and one can skip this note if found inappropriate to his style of trading.

We have two kind of SAR levels available based on trading systems.

o   EOD SAR level
o   Developing SAR level

Developing SAR:  If you choose a method for example like MA cross-over, your SAR is a developing SAR on daily charts. One has to wait and watch to initiate his trade when the MA cross-over happens in the daily chart.

EOD SAR:  If you choose a method like MA EOD values such as High, Low or Close as a SAR, it’s an EOD SAR. Your SAR number for the next day is available to you the moment market closes today. 

 Selection between above two system can be done based on the following:

Developing SAR will suit to the people,  

a)      Who can watch markets live.
b)      Who has the mental fortitude to keep calm and digest sudden rapid price movements during                                                                                                 intraday against his position.
c)       Who can take right decisions quickly without any second thought in live trading session.

EOD SAR will suit to the people,

a)      Who is a part-time trader and cannot watch price action all the time in the day.
b)      Who cannot control his emotion and used to commit errors when seeing adverse price action in small time frame.
c)       Who has deep pockets and wants to trade in multiple counters and contracts with peace.

I personally prefer and follow EOD SAR system, which suits my profession as well as to my character and attitude towards market. I prefer beginners to stay away from live action to avoid the temptation to act on every wild tick movements. You may see many times price has closed at the same place where it closed on previous day. But during intraday, it might have troubled many men’s life on that day. EOD SAR helps to prepare you mentally to accept the gain or loss. Decision-making can be done with ease and emotional errors are bound to be less.

I repeat again, above note is purely from my exposure with the markets and you may have a different approach and mental make-up. So, it would differ for different traders. Please analyse and select the type of SAR which suits you well.

What are the contracts suitable for SAR system?

Any market/contract can be traded using mechanical system. But following must be kept in mind.

1.       Price range and volatility are main factors to be considered. Trading system should be selected based on these two factors. High beta and volatile counters cannot be traded with short term SAR systems as it leads to whipsaws quite often.

2.       You cannot have break-out methods such as 3 day swing high/low for narrow range counters such as zinc in commodities or Ashok Leyland like equities. This will also lead to more number of whipsaws.
3.       It’s advisable to avoid narrow range and low volume counters to trade under mechanical trading. 

4.       Generally, any trending contract can be traded well with SAR systems. I would suggest following to start with.

a)      Nifty
b)       Large cap scrips like Reliance, SBI, Tata motors etc
c)       Bank Nifty
d)       Crude oil
e)      Silver
f)       USD EURO 

Hitting the pause here. We will meet again to read about following in the next post.

Basement of SAR Trading – “Backtesting”:

Application of SAR Trading – “Real trading” :

Essence of SAR Trading – “Sitting tight”:

Nuisance of SAR Trading – “Whipsaws “:

Hindrance of SAR Trading – “Part booking”:

“Position Sizing” & “Add-on methods for better performance in SAR Trading”

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