Wednesday, September 10, 2008

One of the best posts

By Brett Steenbarger

2) No One Strategy Always Wins - Go back to the idealized chart of cyclical price change from the prior post. During the market moves between price lows and momentum highs and between price highs and momentum lows, trend following strategies will tend to work. During periods between momentum highs and price highs and between momentum lows and price lows, we will tend to see countertrend (reversal) strategies working. During the period between price highs and momentum lows, we'll tend to see volatility expand; during the period between momentum highs and price highs, we'll tend to see volatility dry up. Using the same strategy across all phases of market cycles will result in periods of uneven performance.