There is a much stronger ethical mandate for discretionary traders, especially veterans who share wisdom, to share their results on forums, since their efforts are both art and science. It's unfortunate there is so little transparency from discretionary traders on these forums since unlike systems traders their results are subjective and cannot be easily duplicated.
Will assume you mean automated.., for "system"..., and manual traders..., for "discretionary" (discretionary is but one category manual traders fall under..., and all trading better damn well be done systematically) ================== Y'all are trying to take my money..., I.., and my colleagues - are trying to take yours And all of us..., are trying to take each other's Doubtful any of us will be taking warm showers together until the wee hours of the morning. RN
Why are System Traders Vilified by Discretionary Traders?" ...I guess it's just like politics or a sports match -- you pick a side, and support it wholeheartedly and despise the opposite side. I'm a bottom line kind-of-guy...so of the two...who makes more of a % return: the system traders, or the discretionary traders? I personally think it's definitely the latter. (i kind of see systems traders as rail road train drivers; and discretionary traders as Top Gun ace fighter pilots...it's more of a true craft/art/skill.)
HI Mark, "systems" don't work, by definition of what a market is, it is not possible to use past price data to foretell the future. Have a nice day
Nothing fortells the future 100% and why we back test, but back testing shows us what patterns did in hindsight and gives probabilities. Take "Gravity" throw apple up in the air and there is 99% change it will fall straight down, you might say it is 100% but if you try all 100 chances in Florida during a hurricane, shows your data too short cause all 100 chances produced 0% when apple never fell straight down and apple fell one mile from where it was thrown. So I disagree with your statement, data is often too short for most who believe it to hold information to form solid probabilities and to be able to adapt to whatever market conditions. I firmly believe if system cannot adapt to some area of time, you simple don't have the answers yet for that area. You can't even foretell if your heart will be beating in an hour from now, so nothing on Earth can foretell what future will be other than people dying.
Do I have to be able to foretell with absolute certainty in order to win? No. If I have a coin which I know comes up heads 60% of the time and I am allowed to bet with that coin and I get to pick which side, there's no way I'm not profitable over a long series of bets. Simply bet heads every time. Will I win the next bet? Unknowable. But knowing I will win three out of five on average means I will through smart betting be very profitable in the long run, certainty be damned.
You cannot extrapolate from that 3:5 probability of success in the near-term that your systems are capable of guaranteeing you a sole source of sustainable income over a multi-decade period, therefore systems trading is not a career for retail traders.
You can say that about any career. You might suffer an accident or an illness that forces you off your chosen career path. Does this mean people should never make career paths? Ridiculous. Life is a series of probabilities, not a series of certainties.