Greetings all,
I have come to the conclusion that the human mind is the biggest anti-edge there is. It is literally programmed to fail at trading.
We are all familiar with how the emotions of greed and fear cause us to cut winners early and let losers run. Then the frustration of doing the above things and either making less than we should have, or losing, just heightens the emotions the next time around. We repeat the same mistakes, hoping to make good on our previous ones. We compound the situation, and so it continues.
If you're unfocused and have not selected a particular instrument(s), time period(s) and strategy(ies), the emotions coupled with the above will kill you stone dead. Your mind is an almost perfect anti-edge, in its untrained form. You may as well just give your money to someone else - it would be quicker and easier.
Of course, I am not saying this natural programming cannot be overridden. There are many, far better people than I, who have managed to master the techniques of trading AND override the emotions. This is a huge undertaking; a path littered with the corpses of those who tried before. There are many stats bandied about regarding the number that make it, and they make for grim reading.
I am not someone who can do discretionary trading. I like many others have tried and failed at it. I am however a professional programmer, and have gone down the automation route. This is not enough of course; you need an edge. I have developed one.
You also need a burning, at times all-consuming, desire to succeed. That is the only thing that gets you past the hard knocks. I have been to the school of hard knocks many times, and paid my tuition.
So, what's it like to do automated trading successfully? Not as easy as you'd think. In the early stages, there are system bugs to be worked out, and technical issues. I have dealt with those, and the system has been running without modifications for many months.
The next hurdle concerns our old friend, emotions. Yes, they still kick in, and badly at times. I just have to keep reminding myself that my computer is programmed to succeed, whereas my mind is programmed to fail. Trust the machine.
I have come to the conclusion that the human mind is the biggest anti-edge there is. It is literally programmed to fail at trading.
We are all familiar with how the emotions of greed and fear cause us to cut winners early and let losers run. Then the frustration of doing the above things and either making less than we should have, or losing, just heightens the emotions the next time around. We repeat the same mistakes, hoping to make good on our previous ones. We compound the situation, and so it continues.
If you're unfocused and have not selected a particular instrument(s), time period(s) and strategy(ies), the emotions coupled with the above will kill you stone dead. Your mind is an almost perfect anti-edge, in its untrained form. You may as well just give your money to someone else - it would be quicker and easier.
Of course, I am not saying this natural programming cannot be overridden. There are many, far better people than I, who have managed to master the techniques of trading AND override the emotions. This is a huge undertaking; a path littered with the corpses of those who tried before. There are many stats bandied about regarding the number that make it, and they make for grim reading.
I am not someone who can do discretionary trading. I like many others have tried and failed at it. I am however a professional programmer, and have gone down the automation route. This is not enough of course; you need an edge. I have developed one.
You also need a burning, at times all-consuming, desire to succeed. That is the only thing that gets you past the hard knocks. I have been to the school of hard knocks many times, and paid my tuition.
So, what's it like to do automated trading successfully? Not as easy as you'd think. In the early stages, there are system bugs to be worked out, and technical issues. I have dealt with those, and the system has been running without modifications for many months.
The next hurdle concerns our old friend, emotions. Yes, they still kick in, and badly at times. I just have to keep reminding myself that my computer is programmed to succeed, whereas my mind is programmed to fail. Trust the machine.
