WHAT DO THE TRADING SIGNALS MEAN?
The Title and the Timestamp
The title is when I posted the trading signal. The format is Year-Month-Day Hour:Minutes, using 24-hour clock meaning there is no AM or PM, and the timezone. A timezone of +0200 means the time is expressed 2 hours ahead of GMT/UTC.
For example, let us take this timestamp and trading signal: 2020-07-04T14:03:24+0200 | Short BSV/USD @ 154.56. This means that on the 4th of July 2020, 2:03 PM, 2 hours ahead of GMT/UTC, a trading signal was generated to short-sell BSV/USD at $154.56.
I often have to post these signals quickly, so I try and put checks and balances where I can. One of these is the Check Date. It should match the Title. They may not be precisely the same but they should be within 10 minutes of each other. If not, go with the Check Date, as being more valid.
Trading Styles
Algorithmic
Trades marked algorithmic are based on stricter rules set in place. I would say that they would be safer more stable, less volatile than Discretionary Trades.
Discretionary Trades
Discretionary Trades are based on looser, undefined rules, more from gut-feel and instinct. I usually engage in them after a market rises so hard so fast, and I expect it to crash eventually, or when the market has crashed and I expect it to pick up eventually. So for example, if we are on a Long Trade and the price has spiked upwards, we may decide to close the trade at a profit, reverse our trade and go Short to ride the market as it crashes down. These trades run contradictory against the obvious, prevailing trend. A discretionary trade can begin a series of other discretionary trades continually reversing positions — sometimes quickly — as we anticipate people's behaviour, ie: the market's behaviour. It requires setting stop-limit orders to take profits and reverse positions which can be an issue providing it here as a signal because I do not want to publish what I am doing until I have secured a good price. This means that for discretionary trades, I may post the price just after-the-fact. In a fast-moving market, the market may have moved far away from the price that a stop-limit has been triggered.
It can be exhausting having to keep reversing trades until stability is reached and we eventually revert back to following the trend (which is what my algorithmic trades do). It is for these reasons I consider them riskier and can be ignored. I only add them here so that I can measure if they complement the algorithmic trades' results.
The Position
The position could either be Long, Short or Out:
- To go Long means to buy something. You hope to gain when the price goes up.
- To go Short means to short-sell. Not just to sell to close a trade but to short-sell. You hope to gain when the price goes down.
- To go Out means to get out of a trade so you can be in a neutral position. You do not lose or gain if the price goes up or down.
The Target Price
The Target Price is the price at which the signal tells us to go in. The price is given using a dot (.) for decimals, not a comma (,) like in Europe. This means that 200.00 means two hundred NOT two hundred thousand.
If there is no price indicated, the reason is usually because of time pressure: You never know when a signal comes through, and it is not always convenient to put an order and ensure you get a good price. If there is no target price to enter or exit, just refer to the price when the signal was given.
Trade / Position Size — How much to buy and sell?
- Buy or sell only as much as what you have allocated to trade this pair. This means if I have $3000 and I allocate $1000 for trading BSV, and BSV is worth $200 each, then I will buy or short-sell 5 BSVs only.
- If a trader trades 10 pairs, and he has $10000, then he allocates $1000 to trade each pair.
- No leverage is ever used, especially not with cryptocurrencies, and especially not with these because from tests, it seems that the average is 30 days for winning trades and a week for losing trades. These are large swings to be leveraging, in my opinion.
Image or Images
Sometimes, I will post an image associated with the trade. It would usually be a snapshot of the chart. If I cannot post one when I generate a signal, I might come back to post an image later on.
Note: The Trading pair, Position and Price cannot be changed once they are posted. If the price was not initially posted and was left blank because of time pressures, I may come back and post the price when the signal was given. I may also add an image or extra comment about the trade later on.