Let's say you have an edge and it works. Do you rest and just execute it and make consistent profits while it is working? or.... Do you persist in your favorite activity and try to improve it? Are you lazy or are you tinkering with something that you do not need to spend your time in? Fix what is already working or leave it alone? Over optimizing is usually performed with forms of curve fitting exercises. I am not talking about that. The quest continues....can humans be perfect? what is Perfect? Michael B. P.S. Tell me some of your stories.
i think that depends on whether your method (edge) has a discretionary part or not. if so - and considering the fact that your experience grows every day a little bit - then over time your overall act of trading is refining by itself - maybe in a way that you don't even recognize every single (tiny) part immediately. hope this helps.
My feeling is that when you have developed a system or method that works profitably and consistently you don't need to constantly refine it. You simply need to practice it with greater and greater size positions as you are able to adapt mentally. Its like muscle memory in sports. If you keep changing the way you hit the ball, you don't develope the muscle memory to keep playing well. Think about it. You can gain greater skill and experience as you grow but you should keep the same basic system imbedded in your subconscious mind so that it becomes second nature to you and you simply react to market opportunities in the zone. If you keep refining your system you can lose your ability to react quickly and efficiently because you are constantly over-analyzing instead of trading. Over-analysis equals paralysis. The number of contracts that you trade is the real determiner of wealth - not how near perfection you can get. The real key to big money is size, not trading perfectionism. I'd much rather be a so-so 100-lot trader who grabs 2 or 3 ticks consistently than a fantastic 1-lot trader who buys the low of the day and sells near the high. Do the math. Size makes the big money, not skill. Be satisfied with only a good system and develop the mental toughness to trade bigger and bigger size. Buying the low or selling the high of the day is for amateurs to dream about.
Really? I thought it was a combination of the two. Size alone is a fairly double-edged sword. I am beginning to think that the ubiquity of trading psychology books are either inappropriately or inadvertently leading some people to believe that they can achieve great things with mediocrity and a good attitude.
in western culture, the undying quest to make things better often ends up resulting in the opposite. this is contra to the taoist eastern philosophy.