Any advice on increasing strike rate?

[arbitrage16]

I'm just starting out, 2 months in trading pre-race, and my strike is at 52% currently. May seem like a very general enquiry, but if anyone has some guidance on tactics to increase the strike rate of their trades, or some experience with this, I'd be very grateful to hear it, thanks!

[RentonT]

Could do with more details about losing trades?

How do you feel you are doing? What do you think you are doing well and not so well?

A couple ideas for pre-off improvements I would say would be:

1) Don't be too quick to open a position. Try and watch the market for longer before getting involved. Will help to read it better and improve strike rate.

2) Trade less markets. Perhaps try focusing on just one strategy and therefore don't trade every market, only the ones suitable.

[SeaHorseRacing]

1- Have a game plan for each market- Different strategy depending on the type of market- Maiden= Swing. High quality handicap= Scalp
2- Monitor your behaviour on the following
a) jumping straight into a trade after a loser?
b) Jumping straight into a trade after a winning trade?
3- Stay objective- if you have every reason you have got it wrong get out. Dont wait until it hits your pre defined stop.
4-Are you being to greedy?
5- Trading to late?
6- Trading to early?
7- Are you calculating your risk reward? A one tick loss on a trade your expecting to make around 4/5 ticks is great risk reward as an example.
8- Find out what races are you weaknesses.
9- Are you compounding your losses? Opening the same trade 3/4 times when it turns out the markets was playing a different game of tactics. If so learn to think this through after you open a trade... have i got it wrong? if so you dont have to trade this race.
10- Learn the art of patience.
11- Learn the art of spotting an opportunity.
12- How many indicators are you using when you open a trade?
13- Are you adjusting your stakes according to your confidence?
14- Are you adjusting your stakes according to volatility?
15- Are you making gentle entries? Starting with a small amount and building your stake up through the trade and your confidence?
16- Are you making gentle exits? Taking your profits out of a trade slowly?
17- Can you accept a loss?
18- Are you maximising your profits?
19- Are you letting trades go in play before you hedge up?
20- Are you taking into account the activity on the tv screen? Horse not loading etc...
21- Do you have a set of trading rules?
22- Do you have a trading plan?
23- Are you staking according to % or per tick. backing on a 2.5 and 10.5 horse for the same stake are going to show different size profits and losses...
24- Are you taking into consideration on how much volume is in the market?
25- Are you taking into consideration of the fill rate?
26- How much liquidity is there?
27- Are you trading races that are clashing with other races?
28- Are you planing your day and managing what you will and will not do.
29- Are you checking the racing form? Maidens and NHF races where a lot of the runners have already had a run but are still maidens the markets move much less than a race card full of unraced horses.
30- How focused are you?
31- Do you have any distractions?
32- Be confident in your ability... start the day with a loss... be aware that your ability will pull you through at the end of the day.
33- Spending too much time concentrating on your strike rate may lead you to trading worse.
34- Stop checking your P & L. I only check my p & l on a Wednesday. No other time- dont get to focused on how well you are or are not doing. What matters is you make some money each week.
35- Are you emotional effected by a trade?
36- Are you over trading?
37- Are you under trading?
38- Record your trades
39- Collect data
40- Are you getting favourable positions?
41- Do you have anger issues?
42- Are you a swing trader or a scalper?
43- Do you have enough money in your account to close your position quickly with other stakes on the ladder? This can stop you getting out when you need to.
44-Are you keeping records of your trades?
45- Are there certain days of the week your strike rate changes?
46- Are you positive?
47- Are you negative?
48- Are you prepared for change?
49- Have you read any books on psychology?
50- Never stop learning.
51- How organised are you?
52- Are you rushing home from work or supermarket etc to trade?
53- Have you been on the betangel masterclass course?
54- Watch Peters youtube videos for tips and strategy's.
55- Are you thinking about where you are taking a loss for each trade?
56- Are you pre defining your loss?
57- What day of the week is it?
58- What time of the year is it?
59-Are you eaten you lunch/dinner whilst in a trade?
60- Do you answers calls or texts during a trading session?
61- Are different race tracks on the same day favouring you?
62- Do you have a bogey track?
63- Have you considered one to one tuition?
64- Are you distracted by this forum during a trading session?
65- Are you a gambler?
66- Have you read trading in the zone- Mark Douglas?
67- Do you follow Peters blog?
68- Have you read thinking fast and slow?
69- Do you have a quite place to trade?
70- Do you take interest into racecourse going conditions changing? I always have a quick check of the weather in case it is set to dramitcally change during or before a meeting.
71- Do you take regular breaks during trades?
72- Do you take a break after a big loss?
73- Are you losses effected from being tired?
74- Is there a pattern to your losses?
75- Are you being mindful during a trading session?
76- Have you tried trading at random?
77- What price is the favourite?

There you go and for anyone else who wants to improve their trading. 76 things for you to think about. They are not necessarily answers but more for something for you to think about, explore and work on.

This is why trading is so hard.

Good Luck

[RentonT]

41- Do you have anger issues?

[ruthlessimon]

*reads all 63*

[Bluesky]

Good to see you posting again SHR, I hope all is well with you and hopefully you will get the chance to post every now and again.

[arbitrage16]

Could do with more details about losing trades?

How do you feel you are doing? What do you think you are doing well and not so well?

A couple ideas for pre-off improvements I would say would be:

1) Don't be too quick to open a position. Try and watch the market for longer before getting involved. Will help to read it better and improve strike rate.

2) Trade less markets. Perhaps try focusing on just one strategy and therefore don't trade every market, only the ones suitable.

Thanks for your response. The losers are contained, so no unplanned going in play, and on average per day I would say out of 12 trades I am taking about 3-4 reds, but they can be double or triple the size of my average green. Typically they come about through assessing the market quickly and trying to get in too soon because I think I know where things are going, so your point about watching the market for longer before getting involved is a great one. Intellectually I know this, that I should wait, in fact 'you gain so much more by waiting' is one the maxims I am trying to trade by, but it's actually putting it into practice that is less easy...

To answer your second question, after two months of trading 6 days per week I've just had my first (very small) profitable week so I think the signs are positive so far. My main issue is not thinking before trades which I have attributed to greed, and a desire to 'do well' meaning that I think I need to trade every race. This has led to my preparation being much improved, as I'm not going from race to race, pitching up and trying to trade, but sitting down beforehand and selecting 10-12 races that I think I can trade.

I saw a post from PW about the number of ticks he was taking in a day and calculated the mean as just under 5 ticks which also helped a great deal, understanding that even though the returns are pennies, being able to take that many ticks and then leave it alone is a good strategy because practicing that technique will allow scaling up.

[Bluesky]

I'm just starting out, 2 months in trading pre-race, and my strike is at 52% currently. May seem like a very general enquiry, but if anyone has some guidance on tactics to increase the strike rate of their trades, or some experience with this, I'd be very grateful to hear it, thanks!

Try and not get too hung up on win rate (I struggle with this myself). I think I have read on these forums somewhere that one can enter a trade at random, and 98% of the time that trade will be in profit. I have had periods of having a strike rate of over 90%, this is not difficult to do, what is difficult is making money. If you have a stop a lot bigger than your target then its very easy to have a high strike rate.

The trick is to have a high strike rate, and have small losses, unfortunately unless your a trading god, this is extremely difficult to achieve. Lots of people make a good living with a strike rate or 40 to 50% though, keeping a tight control of their losses, and letting their profits run (often by scaling) when they get on a good one.

There is a sort of trade off that seems to occur, the higher your strike rate, the larger your average loss will tend to be in relation to your average win. The lower your strike rate, then the lower your average loss will be in relation to your average win.

I think a good idea when your starting out is not to get too stressed about winning and losing and just try and get used to how and what makes the markets move. Not many people get it in a eureka moment, I think its a gradual process with a lot of two steps forward one step back kind of progression. Gradually things will start to become clearer and you will begin to notice things that you hadn't realised just a few weeks ago.

I think a good analogy is driving a car, when you first start to learn there is so much to take in and you find it extremely difficult, after a while and in particular a few years after you have passed your test, most of your driving is done almost automatically. I think trading has a lot of similarities when you first start, it is extremely difficult and you think there is no way your going to get the hang of this, but if you persist and don't give up like most people do, then I think most people are capable of at least making profits, but perhaps not the huge returns that the trading experts out there can achieve.

There is a post on here somewhere by someone (cant remember his/her user name) and they showed their P/L for a period, they were doing extremely well but they were doing this by having a lot of break even or small loss trades, and then a few really big winning trades. In terms of their strike rate it wasn't anything extraordinary but in terms of the bottom line it was terrific.