Real Value in Automated Strategies

Discussion in 'Automated Trading' started by Here2learn, Apr 19, 2012.

  1. I'm fairly new to automated trading and have dabbled in strategies based on indicators and a little soley on price action.

    I'm asking the question: "Where/how are traders finding profitability in automated strategies?"

    From what I've noticed, traditional indicator based strategies are marginally profitable, at best, and have large inherent risk. Price action based strategies are difficult to code, and on a simple level, are not very profitable. Publicly available platforms do not seem to be capable of high frequency trading(I find it hard to believe that a trader is profitable with a platform like ninjatrader trading a 1 min or less time frame), so that's not where it's at either.

    The one area I do see potential is in longer term trading, such as swing, where the system is utilized for it's "mechanical discipline" in entries and exits effectively taking the human emotional element out of the trade which is a big challenge for many unprofitable and profitable traders alike.

    Maybe I have a negative attitude, or worse, ignorant to the capabilities of good traders/coders.

    Regardless, please share your experiences and opinions on the question.

    Thanks
     
  2. Well, they find them in original approaches and nn-trivial coding. They also find them in proper trade coding - not just indicators, but better decsisions HOW to trade them. They fdind them through thousands of hours of work and trying out many many things and actually spending countless hours programming more and more complex strategies (not in overly complex, more in less trivial and ignorant) until they find an edge.

    And yes, they find them also in larger time frames. THe market seems to be fractal. I am testing about 2-5 strategy approaches per week.