Sorry I missed your post earlier on when I was looking in to the data.
The systems I am testing at the moment are at what I hope to be at the end of a rather expensive tortuous journey.
After many years trading rather ad hoc ditching good strategies when I lost money (after ignoring the rules) and many other trading mistakes I figured I'm the kind of character that needs a little more in the way of hard and fast rules and less in the way of discretion. Time and time again I've proven I do not have what it takes to trust myself without very specific exit criteria. I think this is due to the need to draw a salary each month and that can manifest itself in desperation to make money that leads to bad decision making, something I think you lose a little when you are looking to make on top of what you have coming in.
I have played with moving averages and 'X' days new highs/lows etc but all these didn't seem to fit my personality. I hate being in overnight and by switching from CMC to cantor to trade the daily expiring FTSE and Dow instruments I got rid of one of my problems, holding on to losers, straight off the bat.
The system I am trying out now is based on a measurement called ATR, average true range, google it if you are not sure what it is or how you calculate it.
My metholodgy is to identify points that if the market surpasses it ought to carry on to close even further in that direction.
I am a firm believer that you have to build your own system in order to stick to it and trust it and also believe what can work for one person might not fit the personality of someone else.
I am also a firm believer of money management and bet sizing and think these done properly can turn a quite pedestrian system into a great one.
It's about understanding the relationships between the number of wins versus losses, the payoff of when you're right versus when you are wrong and the streak of wins or losses in a row.
If you are interested in systems I'd like to point you in the direction of
www.seykota.com.
It's great, I appreciate some traders don't like emotional side he writes so much about but he has a resource section for building systems and all the math you might need that is second to none. He has a great way of showing clarity to the ideas and genuinely is contactable if you need help.
Hope this gives a little insight in to where I am at with this.
I am sorry if a lot of it is stating the obvious but thought I'd start from the top.
Stephen McCreedy