Would you trade the blue system if you'd have to spend two hours per day on research compared to 0 research and just buying and holding the red system (S&P 500 SPY)? Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Trading a system does not involve two hours (or two minutes) of "research" per day. Trading a system does require acquiring daily data (price data, fundamentals data, sentiment data, astrological data, etc.), running software, preparing order sheets, checking orders, filing records, reconciling statements, documenting filled orders, tracking slippage, placing new orders, canceling obsolete GTC orders, moving stops, correcting out-trades, and balancing accounts. This may require a substantial amount of time. But none of it is "research".
thanks for the unsolicited English lesson. If you'd put more time into researching how you can automate these activities you'd spend less time acquiring daily price data, preparing order sheets, reconciling statements or placing new orders. I trade automated and after I've researched how to do these things, I don't need to spend time on them any more. I can research new trading strategies which is how I spend the two hours on average each day. Here's what wikipedia thinks research is: Research can be defined as the search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, with an open mind, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method.
You could do a time value of money calculation and literally find out if it's worth your time. IMO, I'd say that I probably would - I'm sure you've also learned many things you can't quite assign a $ value to.