Overview

The Follow The Bear (FTB) strategy is a forex trading strategy designed to capture a recurring pattern in EUR/USD's price action during the European market open. The strategy aims to take advantage of trapped euro bulls who are forced to unwind their long positions as the price starts retracing. Specifically, it watches for shooting star or hammer reversal candlesticks on the 1-hour chart of EUR/USD. Once detected and confirmed with additional filters like an overbought RSI, it will aggressively enter short positions with a tight stop above the reversal candle and a profit target based on a reasonable risk/reward ratio.

Strategy Logic

The core premise of the FTB strategy is based on the assumption that euro bulls and algorithms pushing the EUR/USD price up will get trapped when the uptrend stalls or reverses soon after the European/London market open. As the price starts retracing, these trapped longs are forced to unwind their positions, fueling further downside momentum.

The strategy aims to capitalize on this bearish theory by watching for reversal candlestick patterns during the European timezone (e.g. 2am-7am). The criteria for a reversal candle is that the close must be below the open and within the lower 50% of the candle's range (closer to the low than open).

When such a candle forms, it signals trapped longs are facing liquidation. To further qualify the signal, additional filters are checked:

1. RSI above 70 overbought level
2. Previous candle closed up
3. Current candle made new recent high

On passing all filters, the strategy enters short positions on candle close with a stop loss placed just above the high and a profit target calculated based on a 1:1 risk/reward ratio (configurable).

One key detail is the strategy only trades during the European session. Outside that, it resets and awaits the next trading period.

Advantage Analysis

As a simple short-term mean-reversion strategy, the FTB approach has several key strengths:

1. Captures a tradable behavioral pattern with good win rate
2. Easy logic to understand and optimize
3. Avoids daytime noise by trading overnight
4. Well-defined risk management rules
5. Seamless connectivity to auto-trading

Overall, as a low-frequency night scalping strategy, the stability and reliability of FTB is quite attractive.

Risk Analysis

While the strategy has merits, as with any trading system, risks exist including:

1. Wider spreads and gaps overnight
2. Simplicity could lead to over-optimization
3. Failure of pattern accuracy in certain markets
4. Limited historical data viability
5. Backtest limitations

Some ways to address the risks:

1. Adjust stop loss buffer
2. Add filters and combine strategies
3. Optimize for robustness across market conditions
4. Use longer backtest period
5. Extensive forward testing before live trading

Optimization Paths

Given the basic nature of the strategy and risks involved, some areas to consider improving:

1. Multi-timeframe – confirm signals on 5m or 15m for robustness
2. Machine learning – train model to screen signals
3. Dynamic stops – adjust stops based on volatility
4. Risk smoothing – optimize position sizing for steadier growth

Conclusion

The Follow the Bear strategy provides a straightforward approach to short-term short selling by capitalizing on retracements fueled by trapped euro bulls. Easy to grasp and enhance, FTB suits systematic overnight scalping. Naturally risks exist in all trading, hence parameter tuning and optimizations help ensure relevance across changing market landscapes.