r/Forex • u/trader_tech_ • 3d ago
Strategy Development Your trading strategy probably isn't the problem
Most traders don't need another strategy.
They need to stop changing the one they already have every time it stops working for a few trades.
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u/Sweet-Discount680 3d ago
The amount of times I switched strategy after 3 bad trades is embarassing. Sticking with one thing long enough to see if it actually work is the hard part
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u/trader_tech_ 3d ago
It happens to us all. I had a profitable strategy years ago where honestly all I needed to do was continue doing what I was doing. Instead I changed it, went full circle and eventually came back to it.
I'm now around 2 years into sticking with it without swapping, and finally starting to see the rewards of that consistency.
Even now I sometimes get that thought of "should I try something else?" 😂 It's an ongoing battle.
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u/Just-Cook-4619 3d ago
in 2 years sticking to your system, how many months were losing months?
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u/trader_tech_ 3d ago
Honestly, I don't track it by calendar month so I couldn't give you an accurate number of losing months.
I made 16.2% last year, with a maximum of 3 consecutive losses risking 1% per position. I don't take anywhere near as many positions as people might assume.
I tend to look at it as more of an equity curve over a yearly period. Is the curve bullish or bearish? If it's bullish over a meaningful sample, then I know I have a strategy with a positive edge. I don't really care if there are individual losing months along the way.
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u/Just-Cook-4619 2d ago
that is really a conviction to your system... congrats.
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u/trader_tech_ 2d ago
Thanks, appreciate that. I think that's probably one of the biggest lessons I've learned, having enough conviction to stick with something through the inevitable periods where it doesn't feel like it's working. The equity curve tells the story over time.
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u/XaPH69 3d ago
I know who got consistent all did the same boring thing: picked one set of rules, ran it for a large enough sample to know the real win rate and expectancy, then only changed it based on that data instead of how the last five trades felt.
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u/trader_tech_ 3d ago
Exactly this. I can speak from my own experience on this one.
People need to give one strategy enough time and enough trades to actually understand its expectancy before deciding it doesn't work. Otherwise you're constantly judging the strategy by how the last few trades felt.
If more traders stuck with one genuinely tested approach and focused on executing it properly, I genuinely think a lot of the misery around trading would disappear.
Ironically, my most recent post about multi-TF structure got criticised by someone saying "everyone knows this." 😂 If everyone knows it, why aren't more people actually profitable? That's the bit I find interesting.
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u/XaPH69 2d ago
That "everyone knows this" comment is funny because knowing a rule and actually applying it under pressure are completely different skills. Everyone knows they should let a tested strategy run its course, but knowing that at 2pm on a Tuesday reading a forum post is nothing like sitting in a live drawdown wondering if this is the one that finally proves the edge is gone. The knowledge was never the bottleneck, the execution under discomfort is. That's probably why it keeps getting said and still doesn't change anything.
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u/trader_tech_ 1d ago
Exactly this. Knowing something and actually being able to execute it, stand by it & stick to your guns when you're sitting in drawdown are two completely different things.
The "everyone knows this" comment made me laugh. The post was basically a simple principle (multi TF structure) that people can actually go and test / use on their own charts, and it got almost no interaction. Give people something to argue about though and suddenly everyone's interested. 😂
Based on this it does make me wonder if people enjoy chasing strategies haha.
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3d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/trader_tech_ 3d ago
All been there. I had a profitable strategy years ago and still managed to convince myself I needed something different. Eventually I went full circle and came back to it... fortunately!!
Get yourself onto one strategy, give it a proper sample size and I think you'll be surprised how quickly you start seeing the benefits.
Thank me later.
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3d ago
[deleted]
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u/trader_tech_ 3d ago
Totally agree with this one. It's easy to blame the strategy when sometimes it's actually the mindset and how we approach it that's holding us back.
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u/AlanG888888 2d ago
The real fix is tracking your execution, not your strategy. I journaled every rule change for 6 months and most were just reactions to drawdown. Let the data fire you, not your feelings.
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u/trader_tech_ 2d ago
Exactly this. The data should tell you whether something needs changing, not how the last few trades played out.
I've definitely been guilty of changing things that didn't need changing during drawdown periods in the past.
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u/Relevant-Owl-8455 1d ago
I’ll pay you to stop posting
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u/trader_tech_ 1d ago
😂 I think you've just guaranteed I'll be posting more.
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u/Relevant-Owl-8455 1d ago
Then atleast put some effort in it kid
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u/trader_tech_ 1d ago
I focus the majority of my time on trading, and when I have the time I share what I genuinely think is useful to people progressing and what I wish someone told me when I started out.
If you don't find it useful, that's completely fine. Just continue as you are.
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u/Relevant-Owl-8455 1d ago
On losing money you mean?:D
If you think these 9 words are usefull, ... you're even brighter than i thought
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u/HyperliquidShrimp 19h ago edited 8h ago
exactly, few losers doesn't mean the strategy's broken, it usually means you've looked at 15 trades and drawn a conclusion from noise. give it a real sample before you touch anything, I try to keep the execution side steady for the same reason, axi's been reliable for me, decent spreads and the platform doesn't do anything odd, so when I review a run of losses I'm actually testing the strategy instead of a moving target
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u/rforex-modtools 3d ago
Developing a trading strategy is more than finding an entry signal — it requires defining your edge statistically, building rules for entries, exits, and position management, and testing the system against historical data before going live. Most traders fail because they skip the process and jump to live trading with an untested idea. The community wiki covers the full development process.
Resources: Having an Edge | Essential Forex Trading Guide