Which is better for you and why? Discretionary works forever because you consistently adapt but not mechanical? What are your thoughts?
When the algos, AI etc, can buy at the exact start of a trend and sell at the very top, I'll concede defeat. But until that day, I ask, how can they do any better than enter early in a trend and exit near the end of that trend, which (some) humans have been doing since markets began.
You could get the complete order book live to the Algo, who's buying / selling and make an opinoin based on masses of info, which humans couldnt process. Based on chart patterns wont do any better than us. Algo can trade full time, while your out blowing the profits ofcourse.
But having all the information in the world does not insure that the algo's entry will be correct or better than that made by the human.
Discretionary time-frame > EOD and you are fine if you are experienced enough. But if you go discretionary intraday you will lose.
There's really no need to adapt a trading strategy continuously. Price will either rise or fall and its surely easy to decide what you will do in each case. This being so, what's the advantage of a mechanical model?
Do you mind elaborating? With the assumption that the market is a fractal and the cost are very minimal in most brokers.
Fractal? I disagree. Have you seen much intraday on ES trend up as long as SPX in terms of bar count? Make that minute bars vs daily bars.
I'd say over all, knowing when the retail traders are buying or the Pro's would give youna much better shot, if you can live see this info ofcourse.
Below is what I said in reply to a similar point in another thread. IMHO the most significant point is the price movement itself, and not who's buying/selling. And the point of my previous reply was simply that within the herd that buys at/near tops and sells at/near bottoms you can find GS just as well as somebody's Granny (no offense meant to any Grannies out there). Just as many are, perhaps you are overly concerned about big orders believing that big equals smart guys, and that as the smart guys have all available information at their fingertips, they must be right!! Well, I can't count the times I heard security analysts scream "The market's got it all wrong". Just buy/sell the trend, and you'll be with the smart guys, and a few smart Grannies too!!