NOTE: Significant changes were made to Sliced Bread on 9/1/08 to reduce open trade equity drawdowns. These changes should smooth the equity curve and improve the Sharpe ratio going forward.

Cant watch the markets all day? Or perhaps you are already trading one of the "gun slinger" systems and you need some long term perspective to diversify your portfolio. Sliced Bread may be just what you need.

When evaluating a trading system, ask yourself these questions:
- Does its trading record depend upon taking very large positions - thus exposing you to excess risk? Sliced Bread typically risks 3%.
- Does it take profits on small moves, thus requiring accurate fills? Sliced Bread was developed using $150 for slippage, so bad fills tend to have little effect on profitability. Trades are for large trends, not tiny intraday movements.
- Do you have to sit in front of the computer all day? Sliced Breads orders are distributed after the market close giving adequate time for order entry. No need to follow the market intraday.
- Is the system well diversified? Are you exposed to large risk because you are only in one or a small number of markets?

Sliced Bread is a long term position trading system. As diversification is key to lowering risk, Sliced Bread trades in nearly all futures markets - metals, currencies, softs, grains, meats, energies, etc. Trade orders are placed in the late afternoon or early evening timeframe. (Exceptions: 1) Contract rollovers are usually done intraday to take advantage of better liquidity. We will notify you of when we are rolling and you can do so at your convenience. 2) Sometimes stops are adjusted intraday. This is only done if the new stops are sufficiently far from the market that receiving them in a timely manner is not critical.) Neither intraday monitoring of the markets nor autotrading is necessary. All trades have protective stops. Note that protective stops are positioned considerably away from the market and are intended to be for "emergency" purposes only - i.e. in the event of some drastic news event. Positions are normally exited when conditions suggest that the trend has matured or changed. Occasionally partial position exits are used, especially if increased market volatility causes trade risk to exceed parameters.

Long term trades are given considerable "leeway", and as such equity in individual trades can vary substantially. Therefore it is recommended that you take most of the trades to gain the diversification needed to prevent large swings in portfolio equity, and to avoid missing that occasional "big one". However, see comments below regarding trade selection for small portfolio size.

Most trades are entered with stops, but there will be an occasional market order. Sometimes there are additional trade signals for a given market after the initial trade has been entered. These "extra" trades are optional, but they often have better success rates than the original trade. These trades are not "averaging down", but are based upon new system trade signals generated independently of the original trade entries.

Trade size risks 3% to 5% per trade, with a maximum of 10% in any one market group.

Smaller accounts may be better served by my other trading system, "Sliced Bread Lite". It restricts itself to fewer markets and smaller position size. However, Sliced Bread can be traded with less capital by following a few guidelines:

1) Because of the large simulated equity for Sliced Bread on C2, trade sizes can be large, and trades are taken in volatile markets. For smaller accounts, consider using the "mini" contracts offered in many markets. These are quite liquid in the grains, metals, and energies.

2) Take only 1 or perhaps 2 trades in a given market group. Sliced Bread may be long corn, soybeans, beanoil, and meal, but you should limit yourself to a selection of markets within a group that is comfortable and does not over expose your account to highly correlated markets. However, it would be better to trade a mini in both corn and soybeans rather than just a single large contract in one market. Remember: Diversification.

3) Gauge your trades from the recommened Sliced Bread trade size. Examples:
a) If we are trading just one contract, dont trade that market unless a "mini" alternative exists. A trade quantity of "1" in the simulated account means that this market is highly volatile, and thus high risk.
b) If we are trading multiple contracts, adjust your trade size by 1/2 or less and remember to limit the number of trades in a market group. Again, the mini contracts can be useful here. If we are trading 2 soybeans, for example, and you want to trade at 1/4 size, you can trade 2 or 3 mini beans.

4) Very small accounts can consider taking only the "extra" trades - those trades entered after the initial trade. These trades tend to have a better risk/reward profile.

Disclosure: I take many, but not all, of the trades presented here. They are not autotraded, but rather placed with a broker within a reasonable timeframe of being distributed to subscribers. As most trades are entered and exited with stops, hopefully I am at neither an advantage nor a disadvantage to anyone subscribing to this service.