Holding time for trades

**** this was edited for errors, see later post on 1 September 2010 ****

I'm continually being asked why I hold some trades for a very long time, rather than use a stop-loss procedure to minimise drawdowns.  The short answer is that it is just part of a winning 'formula'. 

My trading records show that I close over 84.5% of my trades within the same day that I opened them.  Another 3.4% are closed within the next day.  Therefore I consider myself to be a short-term trader, rather than a 'hold-and-pray' trader.

The problem is that when I show average trading times, such as in this table below, the few longer trades bias the results so much that the figures are nearly meaningless.

I'm still searching for a better way to show the average length of trades, that doesn't distort the facts.

Meanwhile you can see a breakdown of my trading results on myfxbook:

http://www.myfxbook.com/members/unclebigpete

myfxbook shows the details of my three managed accounts at OANDA.  The oldest account is private, but you can join either of the other two.  Just email me on peter@douglas.id.au, and I'll send you the 'paperwork'.

Meanwhile, happy trading!