This website or its third-party tools use cookies which are necessary to its functioning and required to improve your experience. By clicking the consent button, you agree to allow the site to use, collect and/or store cookies.
Please click the consent button to view this website.
I accept
Deny cookies Go Back
  • Price Action Trading Course
  • Trading Setups
  • Topics ↓
    • Price Action Trading
    • Day Trading
    • Trader Development
    • Site Map
  • TSR Trading Guides
  • Resources
    • Udemy Trading Course
    • Trading Books
    • Trading Indicators
    • Forex Tester 4
    • NinjaTrader & Kinetick
  • Member Login

Trading Setups Review

Trading Strategies, Guides, and Articles for Active Technical Traders

You are here: Home / Trading Articles / How To Increase Your Trading Profits by 3729% And Cut Commissions by 80%

How To Increase Your Trading Profits by 3729% And Cut Commissions by 80%

By Galen Woods in Trading Articles on February 25, 2014

Am I selling a black-box trading system? Or a well-kept break-through technique to turbo-charge your trading profits?

No, you don’t have to pay a single cent for this. And there is nothing secretive about what I am going to share.

Some of you might already know what is coming, especially those who have kept excellent records of their trading activities.

This money-saving (and  money-making) idea works with most trading strategies.

Case Study: Trend Bar Failure Strategy

In this example , we will use the Trend Bar Failure setup, which is a pattern discussed in my “Day Trading with Price Action” course.

Strategy Back-test

  • Instrument: 6E futures (EUR/USD)
  • Time-frame: 1-hour
  • Period: 23/2/2013 to 23/2/2014
  • Stop-loss: Pattern stop
  • Target: Average hourly range x 2

With these parameters, we lost $62.40 trading one contract per trade. But that is not the point.

This is:

Trading Profits Distribution Graph by TimeThe three most profitable hours are within a five-hour period.

What do we do with this information?

Let’s re-run the back-test. This time, we will be lazy and trade only during the five-hour period.

The table below compares the two sets of trading results.

Improvement in Trading Results When You Restrict Trading Hours

By restricting our trading hours and settling for less action, we have managed to:

  • Decrease our commissions by 80%
  • Increase our trading profits by 3729%

Do you want to pay $62.40 to take 110 trades? Or do you prefer to take 23 trades and make $2,264.68?

This case study is not about trading Trend Bar Failures using a mechanical approach. If you want to learn more about this simple price action trading strategy, you should refer to this article.

The real takeaway here is the impact your trading hours has on your trading profits.

More Trading Profits For Trading Less

Trading less is more, if you know when to trade.

We can earn more if we know which are the best hours to trade and stick with them.

The best hours to trade depends on many factors including the market you are trading, your trading time-frame, and your trading strategy.

As a rule of thumb, most active trading strategies do better during higher volatility periods.

Back-test your trading strategy like what we did above to gain insights on which are the profitable hours. If you trade with a discretionary strategy and find it hard to back-test mechanically, you can do manual back-testing.

However, manual back-testing is tedious and has greater room for error. So, if you have kept good records of your trades, you can put them to use now. Check your trading records to see if your profitable trades tend to cluster within a certain time period each day. Go through the day trading evaluation cycle and find when to take the best trades.

Examine your trades and you might uncover when you should trade to maximize your trading profits. It is time to forget about taking as many trades as you can. Trade only when it matters.

Take a closer look at your trading records now and uncover this hidden gem in plain sight.

You might realize that trading the first two hours of each trading session makes you more money than trading the entire session. On top of that, you get to free your time from trading and spend them with your loved ones.

Read more about Trade Management, Trader Development

Serious Traders Only!

Day Trading With Price Action – A complete course that teaches you the art of price action trading.

Perfectly structured with step-by-step guides to help you understand the principles of price action analysis.

Click here for the course syllabus

More From Trading Setups Review

Bollinger Squeeze on TSN Daily

Moving Momentum Trading Strategy

Trading Candlestick Patterns With Relative Strength Index (RSI)

Trading Course Banner

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Search Trading Setups Review

Get a Free Course Chapter from Galen Woods' Day Trading With Price Action Course [PDF]

Plus, our latest trading guides and tips in right your inbox.

Recommended For You

A Plain and Simple Trend Line Channel Trading Strategy

3 Lesson Plans For The Self-Taught Day Trader

Exhaustion Gap Trading Strategy For Reversals

Inside Day NR4 (ID/NR4)

4 Trading Strategies For The Trend Line Tactician

3 Easy Ways To Make The Classic 9/30 Trading Setup More Powerful

The Power Of Multiple Trading Signals In Confluence Zones

Trading Course Banner

Trading Setups Review

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise With Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Affiliate Disclaimer
  • Full Risk Disclosure

Learn More

  • Day Trading With Price Action Course
  • TSR Trading Guides
  • Trading Setups
  • Trading Articles
  • Trading Books
  • Site Map

Futures and forex trading contains substantial risk and is not for every investor. An investor could potentially lose all or more than the initial investment. Risk capital is money that can be lost without jeopardizing ones financial security or life style. Only risk capital should be used for trading and only those with sufficient risk capital should consider trading. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.


The website contents are only for educational purposes. All trades are random examples selected to present the trading setups and are not real trades. All trademarks belong to their respective owners. We are not registered with any regulating body that allows us to give financial and investment advice.


Trading Setups Review © 2012–2021