Being discretionary or systematic/mechanical/algo is quite pointless. At the end of the day, it's always about whether you finished in the black or not. Everyone here sounds as if they are all making a ton of money and it's only a matter of choosing one or the other. First concentrate on making money, then worry about the two.
"concentrate on making money" what does that mean? start your own dominos? is that systematic/mechanical/algo? it does matter! unless you have a lock on some insider deep math on the fast track, for the rest of us it does matter. the % you ascribe to either, on any given day at any given time matters. i'm no quant, it matters.i try to make up for it.
That's a franchise chain, I think? So that would be fairly systematic/mechanical, rather than "disctretionary", while of course still offering plenty of scope for someone to make a complete hash of it, just like any other form of self-employment (including trading)?
Just a misspelling of the word "echelon", I think? Not unlike my typo in the word "discretionary", in the post above yours? Too late to go back and edit it, now: this thread has apparently produced something of a nosedive in the forum's literacy standard (among other things).
I am not concerned about spelling, would like brother Surf to explain what is he on about? There are still trading entities out there that make decisions based on 'sit and discuss'. Would like to see proof (from Surf) that this doesn't take place anymore.
My Experience shows that the majority of them are systematic, but they don't have a set of 100% objective trading rules they apply and never deviate from, rather they keep about 20% of their monthly investments to a high - ultra high trades. You can say they mix it.