Strategies for All Occasions

For the majority of traders starting out, trading the long side of the market (i.e. buying to
sell at a higher price) is the only strategy considered. But trading with a long-only bias can
leave you blinded to the opportunities on the other side of your trade. Trading on only half
the story can mean missing out on big gains, particularly when trying to fight the 'wrong
side' of the market.

The Zignals Trading Strategy Builder allows you cover the full story by allowing both short
and long strategies. Because building a strategy is free you can create two strategies, one
long - the other short, and trade the signals together. Because strategies are separate you
can create one with a different exit strategy than the other, allowing you the flexibility to
offer tighter stops in a short strategy when price collapses are frequently short and sharp,
but loosen the reins and look for bigger profits (profit target) when trading the long side.

The only caveat with this format is the performance data of each strategy will only reflect
the long or short side of the picture. The actual performance of this strategy traded side-by-
side will be different.

For starters we will use the Nasdaq ($NASDAQ) and Russell 2000 ($RUT) as test indices.
These two indices are compiled into a single stock-list I have called 'Indices' (i.e. this will be
strategy where the signals will act on both indices).

For this article we will again be editing the Target&Stops so for a standard rule we will use
the MACD crossover; the default 'MACD Signal Buy' rule for our long strategy and the
default 'MACD Signal Sell' rule for our short strategy. While we will be making changes to
our Targets&Stops in our Setup leave the default for now, but set the Delay between trades
to zero. Don't forget to set the strategy type to 'Short' for the MACD sell rule and 'Long' for
the MACD buy rule!

The backtest will run from November 12th 2008 to November 12th 2010.

As an initial test, running both strategies with the default Stop Condition generated the
following results

Target: 15%; Stop: 10%; Trail employed; Target: 10%; Stop: 5%; Profit Target: 25%

Long Strategy Short Strategy

No. of Signals 18 16
Winning Signals 78% 19%
ROI 9.7% -4.8%
No. of Trades 10 11
Winning Trades 60% 18%
Net Profit1 5.3% -5.5%
 1: Enters an average $9,125 per trade. Profit calculated from a $100,000 starting
capital

Obviously, markets have had a bullish bias since the start of the backtest period so the long
strategy will invariably outperform the short side.

Starting with the long strategy and changing the Target &Stop conditions offered the
following returns:

Target: 10% Target: 10% Target: 10% Target: 10%

Stop: 10% Stop: 10% Stop: 15% Stop: 15%
Trail Target: 10% Trail Target: 5% Trail Target: 10% Trail Target: 5%
Trail Stop: 10% Trail Stop: 5% Trail Stop: 15% Trail Stop: 15%
Profit Target: 40% Profit Target: 40% Profit Target: 50% Profit Target: 50%
No. of Signals 18 18 18 18
Winning Signals 61% 83% 67% 61%
ROI 10.7% 8.4% 8.0% 7.8%
No. of Trades 8 10 6 6
Winning Trades 38% 60% 33% 33%
Net Profit1 7.1% 4.2% 7.1% 7.6%
1: Enters an average $9,125 per trade (max investment: $18,250). Profit calculated
from a $100,000 starting capital

Not surprisingly, the broader the trail stop the fewer trades generated and the longer profits
could be let run. On paper at least, building a strategy around the Target&Stop conditions
used for the strategy returning 7.6% would appear the easy choice. But in real world trading
the choice is rarely so clear, adhering to the signals is easier when the percentage of winning
trades is up around 60%, rather than the 33% of the highest net returning strategy. The final
choice is really a matter of personal preference and whether the psychology of frequent
base hits is preferable to one relying on the home run.

Looking at the short side of the strategy, it was really a case of damage limitation.

Target: 10% Target: 10% Target: 10% Target: 10%

Stop: 10% Stop: 5% Stop: 15% Stop: 15%
Trail Target: 10% Trail Target: 10% Trail Target: 10% Trail Target: 5%
Trail Stop: 10% Trail Stop: 10% Trail Stop: 5% Trail Stop: 5%
Profit Target: 40% Profit Target: 40% Profit Target: 25% Profit Target: 25%
No. of Signals 16 16 16 16
Winning Signals 13% 7% 38% 38%
ROI -4.9% -3.6% -5.1% -5.4%
No. of Trades 13 14 10 10
Winning Trades 31% 14% 40% 40%
Net Profit1 -7.1% -4.8% -3.7% -4.1%
 1: Enters an average $9,125 per trade (max investment: $18,250). Profit calculated
from a $100,000 starting capital

Given our look back period has a dominant bullish bias running the aforementioned
comparisons provide a false picture. Instead, how did our long and short strategies compare
when pitted against a complete market cycle.

To do this the strategies were run from Jan 1st 2008 to Nov 11th 2010 (which offered a
trading range, a sharp up and down, but effectively finished the period flat)

LONG

Target: 10% Target: 10% Target: 10% Target: 10%

Stop: 10% Stop: 10% Stop: 15% Stop: 15%
Trail Target: 10% Trail Target: 5% Trail Target: 10% Trail Target: 5%
Trail Stop: 10% Trail Stop: 5% Trail Stop: 15% Trail Stop: 15%
Profit Target: 40% Profit Target: 40% Profit Target: 50% Profit Target: 50%
No. of Signals 22 22 22 22
Winning Signals 50% 77% 55% 50%
ROI 7.7% 6.3% 4.6% 4.4%
No. of Trades 10 12 8 8
Winning Trades 30% 50% 25% 25%
Net Profit1 5.1% 2.2% 4.1% 4.6%
1: Enters an average of $9,125 per trade (max investment: $18,250). Profit calculated
from a $100,000 starting capital

SHORT

Target: 10% Target: 10% Target: 10% Target: 10%

Stop: 10% Stop: 5% Stop: 15% Stop: 15%
Trail Target: 10% Trail Target: 10% Trail Target: 10% Trail Target: 5%
Trail Stop: 10% Trail Stop: 10% Trail Stop: 5% Trail Stop: 5%
Profit Target: 40% Profit Target: 40% Profit Target: 25% Profit Target: 25%
No. of Signals 22 22 22 22
Winning Signals 27% 18% 50% 50%
ROI -1.0% -1.2% -2.6% -2.0%
No. of Trades 19 20 16 16
Winning Trades 53% 14% 63% 63%
Net Profit1 -3.4% -3.4% 0.7% 1.0%
1: Enters an average $9,125 per trade (max investment: $18,250). Profit calculated
from a $100,000 starting capital

So for our meta strategy, we first looked at the following two systems:

LONG: Target 10%, Stop 10%, Trail Target 5%, Trail Stop: 5% and Profit Target of 40%
SHORT: Target 10%, Stop 15%, Trail Target 5%, Trail Stop 5% and Profit Target of 25%
So when the approach was to mix two strategies which each had a high percentage of
winning trades the net return was barely positive; the aforementioned combo offered 56%
winning trades (9 out of 16 trades) with a paltry 1.9% return. The problem occurred on the
long side of the strategy as it held long, but got repeatedly stopped out in 2008, preventing
us from taking the profitable signals on the short side.

If we switched out the Long strategy to:

LONG: Target 10%, Stop 10%, Trail Target 10%, Trail Stop: 10% and Profit Target of 40%
SHORT: Target 10%, Stop 15%, Trail Target 5%, Trail Stop 5% and Profit Target of 25%

Effectively matching a high % win short side strategy to a low % win long side strategy
brought a dramatic improvement. The greater amount of wiggle room using a 10% Trail
Target and Stop on the long side still left the win percentage at 57% from 14 trades, but it
was able to ride longside plays for longer in 2009 despite staying on the wrong side in 2008.
In effect, a $20,000 account which invested half of available capital up to a maximum of
$10,000 per position finished with $26,563 or a 32% return (excl. commission) at the end of
this period.

Detail of the Trades as follows

Symbol Signal Entry Exit % Return

RUT Short 4-Jan-2008 23-Jan-08 5.58
NAS Short 4-Jan-2008 24-Jan-08 7.16
RUT Long 01-Apr-08 02-Oct-08 -10.2
NAS Long 01-Apr-08 17-Sep-08 -10.2
RUT Long 26-Dec-08 17-Feb-09 -10.2
NAS Long 02-Jan-09 15-Jan-09 -10.2
NAS Short 15-Jan-09 12-Mar-09 9.7
RUT Long 25-Mar-09 20-Apr-09 5.5
NAS Long 23-Mar-09 23-Sep-09 39.9
RUT Long 17-Jul-09 22-Apr-10 39.7
NAS Short 30-Oct-09 10-Mar-10 -15.3
NAS Long 23-Jul-10 Current 12.3
RUT Long 26-Jul-10 20-Aug-10 -10.2
RUT Long 08-Sep-10 Current 15.1