13/2 Indices, page-570

I found a similar outcome in my algo portfolio and throughout the creation process and ongoing. I have no hybrid algos they are 'MR Long A' and 'MR Short B' pairs. The shorts need to be far more selectively filtered. Major resistances are a good place to start with a combination of euphoric price action and time of day or global sychronisation.

All effective shorts use multi time frame layering be it 5 min or 4 hrs for a 1min TF execution, whatever works for the individual trade really. The only ones I have kept can hold themselves or grow during a rally such as we have had/having and that's very few but they are there and powerful. Everything else was over optimised with the data I had at hand and got junked for parts.

Interestingly, if I was to create a hybrid trading algorithm long/short then the outcome was overwhelmingly longs doing the work and shorts not really adding anything much. Just like you stated. Coincidence? I think not.

The conclusion I have come to is that shorting is very beneficial to a portfolio but needs very specific confirmed and identifiable breakdowns. It has to whack you in the face and you'll know what to do. Much like the Ftse false break the other night or Nasdaq at 12800 last week, blind Freddy could see it. Probably your 4hr 2 close under filter is a better example and I can see why now that is your 'go to' filter.

Perhaps a concrete example to back up my statement to April is this trade. The main filter is 30min downtrend of the EMA100. It's a 5 min TF counter trend long, so mean reversion only. Other trend and break out strategies do the lifting higher up. An example of domination in a 'bear mkt' This is why BTFD works on a technical level in the current climate but everyone can draw their own conclusions.

There is enough information in this post to identify what approach should be used in what environment (for day traders) with my markings about productivity. This better help someone here because a it's a small detailed example the outcome of hundreds of hours work! Just read between the lines.