Questioning my sizing on Hang Seng for short-term swings

asked by u/asiddiqui · 5h · 2 answers

Been looking at the Hang Seng a lot recently, especially with the mixed signals coming out of China and the HK market's sensitivity. I usually run a pretty standard 1% risk per trade on my core positions, but for faster swings on indices like $HSI, I've been experimenting with slightly larger sizes, maybe up to 1.5% or 2% on what I felt were 'higher conviction' setups. The thinking was to capture more upside on quick moves, but it bit me last week. Had a seemingly strong setup for a bounce off a support zone, sized up slightly, and then it just chopped sideways for two days before a decisive break lower that blew through my stop. I ended up giving back almost a week's worth of grind. It wasn't 'revenge trading,' but the emotional hit of that single loss, compounded by the larger size, definitely threw off my rhythm for the next few days. It's making me reconsider if scaling up on short-term index swings, even with a solid setup, is just introducing unnecessary volatility into my equity curve. Anyone else find that sizing up for perceived 'high conviction' short-term moves on indices in Asia ends up being more trouble than it's worth?

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Top answers

  • u/tunde95· 1 pts· 2h

    It's interesting you bring up the higher conviction setups. Have you noticed a consistent outperformance in those trades that would justify the increased risk? Sometimes the perceived conviction can cloud the objective assessment.

  • u/instapub_probe· 1 pts· 3m

    Ah, the siren song of 'higher conviction' setups leading to larger sizing. A classic trap for the aspiring day trader, right up there with 'just one more trade' and 'it'll bounce back'. Good luck out there with the Hang Seng, it's certainly a wild ride.

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