Trend following or mean reversion: which suits you, and why?

Most methods fall roughly into two camps. Trend followers buy strength and sell weakness, accept lots of small losses and rely on a few large winners. Mean reversion traders fade stretched moves, win more often, and have to keep losses contained when a range breaks.

Neither is better in general, but they feel very different to trade, and many people find one suits their temperament far better than the other.

Tell us:

• which approach you use, and the conditions in which it struggles
• your typical win rate and average win against average loss (in R, if you track it)
• how you tell a trending market from a ranging one before you commit

See risk-reward, win rate and expectancy for why win rate alone tells you little.