Page 2 of 2
Re: Writing the spread at entry into your journal
Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2026 10:27 am
by gwhitlock64
PTScalper wrote:Yeah, i agree too, you will need more than 200 trades in my point of view as well.
Cheers for the backup, though mine went a bit differently tbh. I had about 350 trades logged over four months, and the top spread bucket was only 60-odd of them but looked proper dreadful, so i just stopped entering above 2 pips. Results didnt change alot, but i was taking fewer dodgy trades and the commission bill looked less grim... so not a disaster either way.
Re: Writing the spread at entry into your journal
Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2026 11:31 am
by PTScalper
gwhitlock64 wrote: Wed Nov 04, 2026 10:27 am
PTScalper wrote:Yeah, i agree too, you will need more than 200 trades in my point of view as well.
Cheers for the backup, though mine went a bit differently tbh. I had about 350 trades logged over four months, and the top spread bucket was only 60-odd of them but looked proper dreadful, so i just stopped entering above 2 pips. Results didnt change alot, but i was taking fewer dodgy trades and the commission bill looked less grim... so not a disaster either way.
I got it right now.
Thanks for clarification
Re: Writing the spread at entry into your journal
Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2026 10:00 am
by Fairman
You're right about the top bucket, and I should have said so. Two hundred trades is the total, not what each bucket gets. If the widest-spread group ends up with 40 trades and the average is around +0.3R with a standard deviation near 1.2R, the error on that mean is about 0.19R. So a result of +0.3R versus a normal bucket at +0.1R is basically inside the noise. Three or four lucky winners would do it.
What I'd do instead is stop looking at average R for the thin bucket and look at something less jumpy, like the share of trades that lost more than planned because of slippage, or simply average spread paid as a fraction of the stop. Those settle with fewer trades. I'd also keep the buckets fixed from the start, say under 1 pip, 1 to 2, over 2, so I'm not redrawing lines after seeing the results.
I'd agree with calling it a hunch until it's a few hundred in each bucket. How long do you usually log before you act on a journal finding? And do you fold the spread into your R figures, or record it separately?