This is 100% true. Because of the low operating costs, and poor resources a retail trader has, to have a monthly net-winning intraday system is basically printing money. It's rare for a reason. It requires a very abstract and multi-dimensional thought process to hit any pay dirt.
Without revealing anything about your strategy, what do you mean by quantitative trading, and what is the difference between just programming a system based on the classic TA indicators? Do you use machine learning?
You can Google quant trading and get a hundred definitions, so I won't explain it. No machine learning here. Just simple historical data analysis. A coded system with properly implemented math will outperform one based on TA/indicators.
Actually , its not true. Folks need lump sums of money fast for a variety of reasons-- hence they will sell system rather than grinding out long term profits. There's an entire industry built around a small lump sum in exchange for a large cash flow. Jg wentworth anyone??? LOL!
I know what it is, but there are a hundred definitions as you say, so I wasn't sure what you meant. It could have been a system based on price/volume etc, or company data for stocks.
Ok, but that's also what indicators like RSI, MACD do and which in my opinion are of little use (they just apply a mathematical operation to past data). Quant should probably be defined as something that uses more advanced math and statistics to achieve an edge I think.
It doesn't have to be advanced math. It's all in the way it's implemented. Simple aggregation and fragmentation could provide a good hypothesis, considering it can be executed in real-time
No, you are not quite getting it. Here is an interview I conducted with one of the fathers of quant analysis over a decade ago. It should shed some light. http://tradingmarkets.com/recent/quants_on_wall_street_the_emanuel_derman_interview-656152.html