Hey Everyone,
I purchased Margin several weeks ago. I ran the Bollinger Band bot for a while and was able to make some profit, about 2%/day at first, using some slightly adjusted Bollinger Band settings and a .25% minimum gain, but no stop-loss. I started running into an issue, though. Every now and then a coin pair would keep dropping in value after the bot bought and it wouldn't come back up for several days or even weeks (some still haven't). It was a little concerning at first, but after a while it started accumulating to the point where almost all my money was held up in these unfinished trades because the value hadn't come back up. This decreased my daily profit and eventually got to the point where I had almost no available money to trade with.
So, I stopped trading for a while and just ran tests. Since Margin doesn't have a backtest feature (which would be awesome...hint, hint), I set up a few computers with the demo running trying different settings (bollinger band levels, min effective gains, stop-loss, etc.). I've been able to increase the daily profit to 3-4% (at least in the tests) (40/40 bollinger bands and 1% min eff gain), but I haven't been able to find a solution to these unfinished trades. Automatic stop-losses almost always result in daily losses instead of profits.
Has anyone else run into this? What strategies have you implemented to keep your money from getting tied up waiting for them to become profitable trades?
I'm at a loss at this point.
Thanks!
Yes, I think most of us have run into this. This morning's 8 AM across the board correction was pretty awful for me and I am straining to stay in the right frame of mind, your timing was very good, I think writing about it will help ease my pain.
I went through everything and moved the stop loss from 6% to 8%. The reason for the problem to begin with is also a good thing.. n00bs. If it were not for the fresh blood the market would stagnate. What we are seeing is exactly what happened in November and December of last year.
Your stop loss size should reflect the size of the coin you are trading, the smaller the coin the more volatility. At present I am going through one of those phases where I am not trading anything larger than. 0.00009999, so my stop loss needs to be bigger. Previous to this week a 6% stop loss would handle 95% of my trading, now with this craziness, 8% will handle maybe 60-70% of the market conditions that I trade in. I hope this is good enough.
I had the same trouble as you, a slight market shift and a coin pair drops 14% no big deal, this is the wild west after all, ..but then it stays there for days and weeks. Screw it take your freaking losses, my pairs normally hit every 8-36 hours if I leave it hanging for 6 days that is a potential for how many trades?
A couple of other things. If you set your stop loss huge, they will trigger less frequently but there will be larger losses and it will happen! The bot has no freaking idea the coin pair is trading at a 3 month high and just keeps going, eventually (at least once) the pair will crash and potentially double what your stop loss is set at so if you make too much allowance be prepared.
Look at this article. Internalize it! Allow your mind to hover over each percent descending until your stomach roils, that or above is your tolerance level for losses do not exceed them or you will feel the same thing over and over each time your stop loss triggers.
https://www.investors.com/how-to-invest/investors-corner/still-the-no-1-rule-for-stock-investors-always-cut-your-losses-short/(there are other more gradient tables which I prefer, it is the best I could do on short notice that drives home the point)
Dissolve emotional ties with all coin pairs, some are performant only because of the people trading them. Ditch the bad ones or the ones with too much noise around them, this week I dumped XVG and NCASH and felt nothing but profound relief.
Yeah, lesterj we all bleed from the same things in different ways, there is no shortcut. Use the demo, that is a good move, I do that too when trying to work something out. Do your math, whatever is the most sustainable approach will probably be the best for you, because like in poker the last one at the table goes home with the most coins.
I do believe I feel better already, STORM just handed me a very unexpected 12.6% gain and it is time for lunch. Yea!
It should pop up a window with your current status. 
