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Re: [EquisMetaStock Group] Re: Why 1~3% risks for investment ?



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Obviously, buying and holding US Government securities, you will never have  
a loser.  You can safely bet a 100% of your capital everytime.  
 
Trading pork belly futures with a breakout system is going to give quite  
different results....
 
What about stocks, preferred stocks, mutual funds,,, naked  options.......
 
So diversification and leverage all enter into the equation....
 
Is there a law of nature out there that says I couldn't have 50 losing  
trades in a row?  (ie. trading an intraday long only moving average system  in a 
savage bear market).  What does 50 losing trades do for you when you  have 
risked 2% of your capital each time....ie. pretty big drawdown.  Go  dig up Risk of 
Ruin formula, which is based on a specific set of trading  system results 
(ie. specific trading system on a specific portfolio)
 
Therefore, the percentage traded is security specific, coupled with the  
trading system performance......
 
Kevin Campbell
 
 
In a message dated 2/27/2006 11:29:05 PM Central Standard Time,  
reefbreak_sd@xxxxxxxxx writes:

For  those interested, Van K. Tharp writes in "Trade Your Way to
Financial  Freedom" an excellent explaination of position sizing and
risk  management.  Specifically you should refer to Table 12-4 in
Chapter  12.  A moving average crossover system is discussed where risk
is  varied from 0.1% to 35% of the total portfolio value.

At 2.5% risk  level, the maximum drawdown is 29%
At 5% risk, the max DD increases to  46%
At 35% risk, max DD goes to 104% - ie your portfolio value goes to  zero.

Put in simple terms, in a typical trading system, if you risk 1/3  of
your portfolio on each trade, in a relatively short time you  can
expect to trade the account to zero.  What actually happens is  that
after several consecutive large losses the individual simply  stops
trading  -  hopefully above zero equity.

Even at the  2.5% risk level, few traders would be willing to keep
trading a system  where they would lose nearly 1/3 of their equity. 
THAT is why you see the  1-3% number come up.

As an individual investor, I use a risk of about  0.8% - that produces
drawdowns around 10% - a number I can live  with.

Ed Hoopes





--- In  equismetastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Jose Silva"  <josesilva22@xxx>
wrote:
>
> > Many people use 1~3%  risks for their investment, but does anyone
> > know why?
>  
> No one knows what lurks in the minds of traders, otherwise we could  
> preempt the public and become quite wealthy practically  overnight.  ;)
> 
> I suspect that the main reasons for a  fixed (1%~3%) trade capital 
> allocation are based on a  misunderstanding of risk, or an inability to 
> measure and act on risk  properly.
> 
> The main reason for capital allocation (money  management), is to 
> control risk to some extent.
> 
>  Allocation of capital (i.e., exposure to risk), should be done on an 
>  individual security basis.  That is, look at individual trade history  
> for each security, and allocate x% of capital to it according to  
> historical risk.
> 
> For example, a risky/volatile stock  may require caution and a smaller 
> capital outlay, whereas a more  stable/trending security with less 
> historical risk, can cope with a  larger trade size.
> 
> In other words, don't allocate capital %  on hearsay or fixed 
> percentages.  Be smarter, and allocate  capital according to individual 
> risk exposure.
> 
> More  on this in the current issue of MSTT.
>  http://www.metastocktips.co.nz
> 
> 
> jose '-)
>  http://www.metastocktools.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ---  In equismetastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, chichungchoi <no_reply@> 
>  wrote:
> >
> > Many people use 1~3% risks for their  investment, but does anyone
> > know why? Does it have any approach  to determine the risk level
> > based on the performance of any  strategy?
> > Thank you in advance
> >  Eric
>






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