I have been testing a system and playing around with its trade frequency. I've gotten some interesting results and was hoping to get some opinions and advice from the forum.

When my system approximately doubles its trade frequency, I get almost identical results in terms of absolute profit, and the average trade profit decreases by about 25%. The interesting thing is that the maximum drawdown also decreases by about 20% for this higher frequency of trading (from 15% down to 12%).

I had the impression that, in general, the less time you can spend in the market for the same profit result the better. But in this case, it appears that greater time in market leads to better results. But maybe this is not always the case.

Any thoughts or ideas about this?

Boatman, so does your capital required increase, since you are holding more positions and thus your return decrease? Or are you getting the same return for more trades? If your your % return on capital does not decrease than definitely go for more trades. If your % return decreases than I would just use more margin on the system which trades less....unless there is an obvious concern over the system taking too few trades.

I don't believe the difference between 12% and 15% drawdown should be your primary concern.

Thanks for that advice Thirstywolf. Makes a lot of sense. My % return on capital increases so going for more trades makes the most sense.