No, they do not get big $$ trading, but they do get big $$ by coming up with profitable trading strategies. Ask Stevie Cohen of Point72 Asset Management....he has a slew of high-tech quants on his staff.
Due to time constraints cos of my study and work, I still have a long way to go. But whenever I have spare time, I will carry on the research. I only have been testing patterns that Jack Hersey provided on ET cos it saves my time. I'll probably have to review other old threads too. But at least now I know that after a upbar or bullish engulfing bar, the next bar is likely to be downbars and vice versa; that's what traders mean by buy dip etc; however, when a trend begins, it will be a different story. So I need to develop more sophisticated methods like Handle123 has suggsted. I already had been trading before I begun my PhD, so I am a little different from pure academic researchers who are not very interested in real trading. Thanks for all your suggestions and encouragement !