Traders who win but really have no clear strategy

[jnbadger]

Quote from Red_Ink_inc:

but how do you automate 'mojo'?

The fact that this came from the mojo captain of the p/l thread (no offense, Bob) makes it that much more relevant. And hilarious.

 

[TSGannGalt]

Off topic. But this thread reminded me of my first mentor who told me,

"Gut feeling of a trader is like a dog wanting to fuck a bitch."

 

[kiwi_trader]

Quote from TSGannGalt:

Off topic. But this thread reminded me of my first mentor who told me,

"Gut feeling of a trader is like a dog wanting to fuck a bitch."

Excellent. And the more beers that dog has ...

 

[titan]

lol

 

[Bolimomo]

Quote from jnbadger:


Some of you guys are light years ahead of the rest of us, but this thread is refreshing in confirming you don't have to be a math/programming wizard to win at this crazy game.

Agreed. I don't think it takes a math genius or programmer to succeed in trading. In fact it may be detrimental.

Read the story on the Long Term Capital Management's meltdown in 1998. They hired a team of PhDs in math, and two of whom had received Nobel prizes, to work out some program trading to achieve a 40% return year after year for 3 years. And then they lost huge in just one day. The market environments had changed and their assumptions were no longer valid.

 

[Bolimomo]

Quote from TSGannGalt:


Anyways, humans adapt to their living environment better than any living organism.

I think cockroaches do better.

 

[monty21]

Quote from Bolimomo:

Agreed. I don't think it takes a math genius or programmer to succeed in trading. In fact it may be detrimental.

Read the story on the Long Term Capital Management's meltdown in 1998. They hired a team of PhDs in math, and two of whom had received Nobel prizes, to work out some program trading to achieve a 40% return year after year for 3 years. And then they lost huge in just one day. The market environments had changed and their assumptions were no longer valid.

+1... there are limitations to systems and the algo programs.

A human mind is still more powerful than a robot.

Markets continually change too, so any backtested programs may soon become irrelevant and unprofitable.

Don't underestimate intuition or gut feelings... no computer is sophisticated yet to calculate this criteria.

 

[ammo]

Quote from ammo:

think in order of what u possess that u need to lose to succeed

the thing that we need to lose that the animals on nature shows dont have is emotion, specifically pride ,or the need to be right on a trade,this is what trips up the mental trading process

 

[Dustin]

Quote from shortie:

Dustin, do you bang out ~100 trades per day like Red_Ink?

You both maintain that what you do can't be automated. But I suspect that in reality you guys employ a set of rules many of which in fact can be automated resulting in profitable strategies. It is quite possible that the canned strats would be inferior to what you can do by eye, but they should work reasonably well nonetheless.

p.s. I like to speculate

Typically I will trade 30-60 different stocks in a day, with multiple entries, adjustments, and exits for each.

I'm in the process of automating some stuff, but it's in addition to my core trading. Stuff that I can't do manually...

 

[Bootsie]

Quote from NihabaAshi:

It doesn't matter how much instinct one animal has...

There is always another animal looking down upon it as a prey and then the predator itself eventually becomes prey to another animal.

Simply, you can't just rely exclusively on instincts because eventually something else comes along with better instincts and better attack skills.

Predator --> Prey (predator) ---> Prey

With that said, as long as we aren't talking about an automatic mechanical system, most traders are not able to utilize their trading instincts which is why most traders have discipline problems...ultimately getting lost in the forest and consumed by whatever awaits them there.

Therefore, profitable traders that trade on instincts seldom have discipline problems and that in itself is an edge that most traders do not have.

Mark

Bingo !