When do you stop refining?

ElectricSavant

ElectricSavant

Let's say you have an edge and it works. Do you rest and just execute it and make consistent profits while it is working?

or....

Do you persist in your favorite activity and try to improve it? Are you lazy or are you tinkering with something that you do not need to spend your time in?

Fix what is already working or leave it alone?

Over optimizing is usually performed with forms of curve fitting exercises. I am not talking about that.

The quest continues....can humans be perfect? what is Perfect?

Michael B.


P.S. Tell me some of your stories.
 
i think that depends on whether your method (edge) has a discretionary part or not. if so - and considering the fact that your experience grows every day a little bit - then over time your overall act of trading is refining by itself - maybe in a way that you don't even recognize every single (tiny) part immediately.

hope this helps.
 
My feeling is that when you have developed a system or method that works profitably and consistently you don't need to constantly refine it. You simply need to practice it with greater and greater size positions as you are able to adapt mentally. Its like muscle memory in sports. If you keep changing the way you hit the ball, you don't develope the muscle memory to keep playing well. Think about it. You can gain greater skill and experience as you grow but you should keep the same basic system imbedded in your subconscious mind so that it becomes second nature to you and you simply react to market opportunities in the zone. If you keep refining your system you can lose your ability to react quickly and efficiently because you are constantly over-analyzing instead of trading. Over-analysis equals paralysis. The number of contracts that you trade is the real determiner of wealth - not how near perfection you can get. The real key to big money is size, not trading perfectionism. I'd much rather be a so-so 100-lot trader who grabs 2 or 3 ticks consistently than a fantastic 1-lot trader who buys the low of the day and sells near the high. Do the math. Size makes the big money, not skill. Be satisfied with only a good system and develop the mental toughness to trade bigger and bigger size. Buying the low or selling the high of the day is for amateurs to dream about.
 
Quote from Johnnie T-Bond:

...Size makes the big money, not skill.
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Really? I thought it was a combination of the two. Size alone is a fairly double-edged sword. I am beginning to think that the ubiquity of trading psychology books are either inappropriately or inadvertently leading some people to believe that they can achieve great things with mediocrity and a good attitude.
 
Quote from ElectricSavant:

Let's say you have an edge and it works. Do you rest and just execute it and make consistent profits while it is working?

or....

Do you persist in your favorite activity and try to improve it?
More...

I think Mrs Savant stated it nicely on another thread:


Quote from MrsSavant:

...... Electric has tried everything and then he finds one more thing to do. At the first hint of it, to lose its profitability, he moves on. I think sometimes he moves on too early. He gets bored. As long as it makes money, I will trade my shift, I do not get bored.

I will tell you that Electric is far too creative to be a trader, and if it were not for me keeping his feet on the ground, he would have blown out years ago. I am the trader in the family and the truth comes out.

Wifey.
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in western culture, the undying quest to make things better often ends up resulting in the opposite. this is contra to the taoist eastern philosophy.


Quote from ElectricSavant:

Let's say you have an edge and it works. Do you rest and just execute it and make consistent profits while it is working?

or....

Do you persist in your favorite activity and try to improve it? Are you lazy or are you tinkering with something that you do not need to spend your time in?

Fix what is already working or leave it alone?

Over optimizing is usually performed with forms of curve fitting exercises. I am not talking about that.

The quest continues....can humans be perfect? what is Perfect?

Michael B.


P.S. Tell me some of your stories.
More...
 
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