SPDR S&P 500 (SPY)

[leftyg]

Sammy...whips happen, and are what eats into any trend trading system..i.e., moving averages, ADX, or whatever one uses.

Even given the whips..the longer term results are quite good..if 25-60% annual is acceptable. I have never had a losing year, as measured on a calendar year basis.

I do all I can to reduce whips..even so, in such a volatile week as we just finished, I managed to be taken out of my long position...by only a few pennies..but out nonetheless. Perhaps that will prove to be beneficial if the market continues down. Then the whip problem becomes the "false" positive filled box. That happened on a rare up day which was greater than +5%..that usually is a good signal, but not this time..again, we only finished filling that box by about 6 cents, as I recall.

If we had used a slightly bigger box size..say 1.75..we would not have gotten that whip, and the trend would still be showing a down action.

The box size is important..and how one chooses it is dependent on many personal considerations involving risk tolerance, and performance goals. Regards.