Tagging each trade as with or against the higher timeframe trend

[Fairman]

Tagging each trade as with or against the higher timeframe trend

Plenty of scalpers say they only trade with the higher timeframe trend. Fewer have checked whether they actually do, or whether the trades that go against it really perform worse for them.

A straightforward tag fixes that. For every trade, before entry, note the direction of the H1 or H4 trend as you see it: up, down, or unclear. Then note whether your trade is with it, against it, or taken while it's unclear.

Do it before entry, not after. After the trade, it's too easy to decide the trend was whatever makes the result make sense.

After a couple of months, sort the trades into the three groups and compare them. Count, win rate, average R.

The results can go a few ways. Often the with trend group is clearly better, which confirms the rule and gives you a reason to stop taking the others. Sometimes the against trend trades are surprisingly decent, usually because they're fades at strong levels where the bigger trend was stretched. And quite often the unclear group is the worst, which suggests that sitting out when the higher timeframe has no direction is the most useful filter of all.

You might also find that you take more counter trend trades than you thought. That alone is a useful thing to learn, and it costs one word per trade to find out.