Taking A Look At An ETF Trading System | Investments

Taking A Look At An ETF Trading System

Written by Patrick Deaton

Thursday, 17 December 2009 17:12

by PatrickDeaton

There are many options available when a person is looking for an effective ETF trading system. There are many website companies that offer services related to trading systems. They may offer alerts, updates, training, information, etc., to make using a system easier. However, the longer that a person is a trader, the more likely it is that they will develop their own effective system.

The terms "trading system" and "trading strategy" mean two different things. These terms are often interchanged by individuals who are not clear on the difference and have not been involved in ETF trading. When reading advertising by someone who says they "know" ETF trading, this is a good indicator of what they actually know.

Without adding the technical jargon that will make your head explode, an ETF trading system is a group of specific rules to determine your entry and exit points for your ETF. Points are sometimes referred to as signals. So, the alerts that a person is getting from their service is the result of lights going off at the entry and exit points after a program has been fed the rules for your particular ETF.

The common analytical tools used to create an effective trading system are not kept behind closed doors either. They are tools like the Moving Averages, Stochastic, Oscillators, Relative Strength, and Bollinger Bands. The information that these tools give you are called "indicators." When at least two indicators are used from one or more of these tools, you have a system.

Remember that this is the most simplified explanation of systems. Creating an consistently effective system can be very complicated and take quite a bit of time. Different indicators will be different for different sectors. A sector that is high risk will need different indicators to be effective than the low risk, long term sectors.

Many people don't have the time or patience to create their own system. This is where the web services come in handy. Most create programs using the indicators most often pulled from the analytical tools. That doesn't mean that they are more effective, but it does give you a head start with a system. The web service creates the rules that fit specific sectors and the user picks the sector and gets the right indicators for that sector.

Doing the work on one's own will require the same attention to detail and a lot of experimentation. There are however, some rules for the system that should help reduce the risks that are involved in creating your own system. First, the system must consistently have positive returns. Translation, it must make money. When the system has negative returns ten times in a row then you will need to take a hard look at the system and strategy that is being used.

Planning a safety net to limit losses will also be beneficial. Having buy and set limits in place and stop-loss orders will reduce some of the risk and provide a safety net. In addition the system must be made up of stable parameters. The tools will give a lot of information that is interesting, you are only interested in the ones that show clear trends or activities on a consistent basis. By creating or finding an effective system when you first start trading you will have much better returns through your learning curve.

DISCLAIMER: This article is provided as information only and is not to be taken as financial advice.

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