I have voted for choice No 4 ie "the other type " .Let me explain as under :Here I am talking about trading and not investing for long term.
1) I am not comfortable trading a system which gives very few hits and large no of failed trades. If a system gives 30 % successful trades and 70 % failure trades but successful trades give a reward to risk ratio of 2.5 to 3:1 or more is great but the question is how many traders can successfully trade such a system ? Getting hit 7 times out of 10 and then on 3 successful trades we wait and run our profits is great if one can handle it psychologically.
2) I am not comfortable with a system which gives larger hits and fewer failures but small profits on each successful trades. This is like scalping for small profits. The brokerage,taxes and other charges work against us.
I am comfortable with the mean between the above two types. I look for the following :
1) Sufficient number of trades, not too many, not too less. For a swing trade system I expect 2-8 trades in a month, for day trade system 2-3 trades a day.
2) Reward to risk expected in swing trade is 3:1 or more and in daytrades it is 2:1 or more ideally.
3) The minimum 50-55 % trades should be successful in both swing trades and daytrades.
4) System should be simple and clearly defined. No ambiguity, no indecision...trade may fail but to take a trade or not should never be a dilema.
Systems I trade dont satisfy all the above critaria, but I try to go as near as possible to the above critaria. There is nothing perfect, and we have to live with imperfections in real life...
Smart_trade