If one's analysis is purely technical (price & volume only), and price movements are random, as Burton Malkiel states in his best seller 'A Random Walk down Wall Street', then it is mathematically impossible to profit, and any gains are the result of lucky guesswork. My own trading experience tends to confirm this view.
If the market is "trending", then there is a bias to price movement, i.e. it is not random. Under such circumstances, one can potentially profit by trading in the direction of the trend, cutting losses short, and letting profits run as long as possible (creating the situation described above, where the average win > average loss).
% of wins
Yes I see what you mean, if you take out breakevens its sounding better.
Thats what I hate about weekly charting systems. You usually have to first go through a period of drawdowns .Then if the whole market corrects your way down. I think I feel happier using daily chart system.
so for 7 day period or more it is possible to get the ratio up-great
yes but setting incredibly loose stop losses would mean you have less money in the trade so the profit would be small. Tight stop losses i think would work better as the trade is more likely to keep on going up especially if you bought in on high volume breakout. I went to a talk by L Bedford the other day and she likes to enter market at end of day so she can see if late selling comes in. I suppose that would protect you from a fake outs to an exten