Discretionary vs. Quantitative

[Ghost of Cutten]

Quote from Pension_Admin:

Which trading methodology do you prefer?

And why?

Discretionary. I seem to get better results and think my skills are better in that sphere than in systematic/quantitative trading. I don't think systematic/quant trading can really capture all the relevant market inputs the way a discretionary approach can.

That said, if I found a quant approach that minted money with low risk, I'd implement it as long as it seemed sound and kept working.

 

[Pension_Admin]

Quote from Ghost of Cutten:

Discretionary. I seem to get better results and think my skills are better in that sphere than in systematic/quantitative trading. I don't think systematic/quant trading can really capture all the relevant market inputs the way a discretionary approach can.

That is true. With discretionary method, we could take all the current events into consideration and analyze the reaction of correlated markets before we place a trade.

With quantitative method, it may got more to do with mean reversion using some PhD-level quantum physic math to calculate the probably of winning in the trade (yes, I have no clue about quantitative). However, if it does make money, I would love to use it as well.

PA

 

[waveman]

Quote from Pension_Admin:

I just want to mention some of the better known traders in no particular order:

<b>Discretionary:</b>
Jesse Livermore
Paul Tudor Jones
George Soros
Jim Rogers
Victor Niederhoffer
Steve Cohen
John Paulson

<b>Quantitative:</b>
Ed Seykota
Jim Simons

Interesting that several of the discretionary ones blew up but none of the quantitative ones.