Every Traders and Analysts should know their Limitations!In this article, I would like to review some of my best trades in the past 2 months!
My goal is to talk about earnings and how unpredictable their outcome could be.
In the past few months, I have tried to find reliable methods to predict the price movement after the earnings!
Unfortunately, I did not find any reliable and fairly accurate method so far!
Having said that, I prefer to stay out of trades before earnings to manage the risk of exposure to big gaps!
I do this because I know it is in my favor in the long term!
For example, I opened a perfect entry at 125.5 for Qualcomm, and closed with a +7.66% gain before the earning! It popped with +12% after earnings!
Should I regret it?
My answer is NO, I am actually very proud of this trade, although I missed the bigger chunk of profits in this trade, my decision was right in Palantir and AMC case!
PLTR: trade closed with +10% in 21 days
AMC: trade closed with +26% in 4 days
Also, I prevent a catastrophe in PYPL: closing with a -2.16% loss.
But why should I be proud of my trade?
I think any trader needs to define his rules and follow the rules!
In the long term, those who do not follow their rules will have the same result, most of them will fail..!
How did I decide to not hold my positions during earning calls?
I apply one of the game theory rules!
Minimax
In game theory, minimax is a decision rule used to minimize the worst-case potential loss; in other words, a player considers all of the best opponent responses to his strategies and selects the strategy such that the opponent's best strategy gives a payoff as large as possible.
The name "minimax" comes from minimizing the loss involved when the opponent selects the strategy that gives maximum loss and is useful in analyzing the first player's decisions both when the players move sequentially and when the players move simultaneously. In the latter case, minimax may give a Nash equilibrium of the game if some additional conditions hold.
Minimax is also useful in combinatorial games, in which every position is assigned a payoff. The simplest example is assigning a "1" to a winning position and "-1" to a losing one, but as this is difficult to calculate for all but the simplest games, intermediate evaluations (specifically chosen for the game in question) are generally necessary. In this context, the goal of the first player is to maximize the evaluation of the position, and the goal of the second player is to minimize the evaluation of the position, so the minimax rule applies. This, in essence, is how computers approach games like chess and Go, though various computational improvements are possible to the "naive" implementation of minimax. (Brilliant)
Minimax has many applications:
In game theory or decision making, a tactic in which individuals attempt either to minimize their own maximum losses or to reduce the most an opponent will gain. For example, a health researcher may propose an intervention that would be the least aversive treatment for a serious disease, thereby minimizing the adverse effects patients may expect to experience as a result of the disease.
I can apply what I learned in med school to the market!
When should you use Minimax in trading?
The answer is simple:
Always..!
Actually, Minimax is the mathematical reason behind using stop loss!
I think I do not need to talk about the importance of stop-loss, I just want to mention WD Gann quote about stop loss:
"Stop loss orders are a trader's best friend."
Price Gap:
Generally speaking, stock prices experience a price gap after earnings! makes it very hard to execute your stop loss without slippage if you are on the wrong side of the trade! this slippage could harm your overall performance in long term as a trader!
Decision-making in the presence of uncertainty.
Minimax, as the name suggests, is a method in decision theory for minimizing the maximum loss. Alternatively, it can be thought of as maximizing the minimum gain, which is also known as Maximin.
It all started from a two-player zero-sum game theory, covering both the cases where players take alternate moves and those where they made simultaneous moves. It has also been extended to more complex games and to general decision-making in the presence of uncertainty.
Stock Market is a Non-zero-sum game, While options are a zero-sum game!
To wrap it up, you should use minimax when your opponent is very sophisticated and its activities are very unpredictable!
No need to say that market is very sophisticated and unpredictable!
"Why do you think the same five guys make it to the final table of the World Series of Poker EVERY YEAR? What, are they the luckiest guys in Las Vegas?"
-Mike McDermot, 'Rounders'.
Reference articles:
brilliant.org
dictionary.apa.org
uh.edu
becominghuman.ai
