Mean reversion in day trading
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 11:26 amConcept of mean reversion is a renowned strategy among the hedge funds that aim at temporary trading. If a commodity, stock or currency gets a little bigger in cost; it will be inclined to snap back to some kind of long term average cost. Mean reversion may entail innumerable tactics, like short term over-purchased and oversold Bollinger Bands, oscillators, regression channels, moving averages and others.
A trader who executes such a strategy must be much regimented in reducing losses swiftly, as they are basically trying to choose tops and bottoms while trying to benefit from a fast, however important move in the conflicting direction, or to the mean.
The solution is the entry cost. Usually, the trader will just look for proof that the present move has run out of steam. If a stock is increased in cost to the advantage and loses upside impetus, the trader will just short the stock and put a stop somewhere somewhat close to the highs, which keeps his possible loss comparatively small, while the reversion to the mean could mean a comparatively important move. This is the kind of risk and reward system an experienced trader will seek.
Nevertheless, the risk is that if the trader goes short and owns the position overnight, the stock could gap with his stop loss and hand the trader an extensive loss. For such a strategy, several day traders decide to exit their position at the end to avoid such occurrence.
The long term approach to success of the trader will be the appropriate use of risk management, and discipline. It’s essential to perform considerable trading strategy research in order to have confidence in your tactic. Your researched strategy should have the discipline to adhere to the strategy through times when it is not doing well.
