Has anyone lost their edge/system b/c too many people knew?

Discussion in 'Trading' started by xburbx, Mar 21, 2009.

  1. Highly mechanical scalping strategies, gimmicky ones, where there is very little discretion and not much room to fuck it up (though rookies I'm sure will find a way), if you go and show those edges to other prop firms it will obviously diminish it.

    If your edge is highly discretionary and based on a longer timeframe, I imagine it would be difficult for it to become too diluted. I have no problem posting my swing trades on ET, though I don't take the time to do it very often. You will never catch me posting my intraday scalps or pre-market stuff on here, because if someone clever watchhes 10 or 20 of the trades he should be able to figure it out. There are people out there much smarter and quicker than me, who make more money, who may not have noticed somethings I have noticed, for whatever reason, and sharing with them would be disastrous.

    Look at Millenium! To people who argue that edges can't become diluted, research the Swift Millenium traders. I won't say what the strat was, though I think I've seen it described on ET in detail by Svezen, but it was a very gimmicky scalping system... hence an edge easy to lose.

    The fact is some systems - by their very nature of what they exploit - WILL turn to shit if shared. If you aren't sure whether or not this is the case with your system, it probably isn't one that will be impacted by sharing it, though I suppose it's better to lean on the safe side.
     
    #71     Mar 23, 2009
  2. Cutten

    Cutten

    I've seen several lucrative markets become much less profitable due to an influx of competition. Typically I seek out markets where I am the only intraday trader. Merely having ONE other dealer/scalper there can cut my P&L by 25-50%.

    Any intraday trader who has competed against algos, for example, knows that while they do not eliminate profitable trading opportunities, they certainly make it harder to get some of the easier money-making trades off, and often make your fill prices worse than they would otherwise be.
     
    #72     Mar 23, 2009
  3. TraDaToR

    TraDaToR

    LOL:p
     
    #73     Mar 23, 2009
  4. xburbx

    xburbx

    So what we have established that most edges are able to be exploited in low vol stocks, but is it possible to impact high volume stuff like ES, NQ, YM etc
     
    #74     Mar 23, 2009