Jump to content

Welcome to the new Traders Laboratory! Please bear with us as we finish the migration over the next few days. If you find any issues, want to leave feedback, get in touch with us, or offer suggestions please post to the Support forum here.

  • Welcome Guests

    Welcome. You are currently viewing the forum as a guest which does not give you access to all the great features at Traders Laboratory such as interacting with members, access to all forums, downloading attachments, and eligibility to win free giveaways. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free. Create a FREE Traders Laboratory account here.

cowcool

Is 100% Mechanical Trading Possible?

Recommended Posts

To answer original question - Yes, 100% mechanical trading is possible. The more important question however is - how effective or profitable is 100% mechanical trading.

 

Most the the automated trading system today are based on historical prices (you do some giant complex math-magic on the past data to predict the future price). IMO simply basing your automated strategy on historical prices is often not enough. Generally, the future price is driven by response to the events (earnings announcement, FDA drug approval, interest rate, government decisions etc). You must be able to take these into consideration while developing your strategy. That is why we encourage people to develop strategy on their own in any programming language of their choice. We only provide REST API to keep track of strategy and its performance, and leave strategy development to the users.

Edited by MadMarketScientist
urls removed

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I run two systems that I've developed that are 100% automated in TradeStation.

I also do discretionary trading on the side. Actually, I 'm learning discretionary trading on a simulator during the market hours. I hope to actively trade non correlated markets against my automated systems for diversification.

 

Not that I'm wanting to suggest that this is what Sansjr is doing, but this can be a great approach for those who struggle against a need to watch the markets and constantly be involved . . .

 

Assuming that you have enough capital, it's perfectly plausible to run several profitable autotrading systems trading multiple contracts, and then to trade around these with a single contract on a discretionary basis. The latter can almost become pure amusement, gambling, or 'vanity trading' - it doesn't matter if the amount that is lost is small compared to the amount that is made by the profitable systems. This puts you in no different a position to, say, a multimillionaire who makes his money selling crisps, but likes to dabble in financial spread-betting at 50p per point 'for a bit of fun'.

 

If, at the end of it, you do uncover some hidden intuitive knack for discretionary trading, then great; otherwise it's no big loss.

 

Having said all this, Swansjr has obviously taken an even more sensible approach by confining the development of his/her discretionary trading to simulated accounts.

 

Hope that's helpful to some of you with bucket loads of capital and thirst for constant action!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
If you can automate 90% of the strategy (which is obviously better than 0%, what is stopping you from automating the other 10%? if this "discretion" that you speak of has specific rules, why can't it be automated? Perhaps you are afraid of what pure objectivity will reveal about your strategy.

 

I'm fully automated and profitable. So, looking back through this thread, it is possible to do this on a live system.

 

100% is a milestone... Actually, the first automated trade for me was a milestone. You start slow and work up.

 

But I think the real trick is the level of dedication that it takes. You cannot take something off the shelf and make it work because there are just too many pieces moving. I believe you have to roll your own system if you want any real scalability.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
this is the trading process:

 

you monitor the price/volume movements,

(HH, HL? LH, LL? 50 Week High? at pivot point? reached support/resistence?, etc.,)

 

you analyze the price/volume behaviors,

(bounce off double top? break out of formed channels? stuck in congestion? volume increase with price? etc.,)

 

based on the above...

you can come to a decision on where you are in the bigger scheme of things

and what opportunities are available

(are you in the midst of a major up trend? in the midst of a minor downtrend retrace?)

 

you act on your conclusion -- how best to capitalize on the opportunity

(e.g. buy call? sell put? buy stock on margin? short ETF? enter a credit spread? long on buy stop? etc.,)

 

 

if you can quantify the above, you can mechanize your trading.

 

100% requires automation. Means initate relationship with hardware, kernel, risk controls, position sizing, order routing. Market microstructure and that stuff you never cared about just become important.

 

Knowing how to trade is < 10% how to actually make money.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


  • Topics

  • Posts

    • How's about other crypto exchanges? Are all they banned in your country or only Binance?
    • Be careful who you blame.   I can tell you one thing for sure.   Effective traders don’t blame others when things start to go wrong.   You can hang onto your tendency to play the victim, or the martyr… but if you want to achieve in trading, you have to be prepared to take responsibility.   People assign reasons to outcomes, whether based on internal or external factors.   When traders face losses, it's common for them to blame bad luck, poor advice, or other external factors, rather than reflecting on their own personal attributes like arrogance, fear, or greed.   This is a challenging lesson to grasp in your trading journey, but one that holds immense value.   This is called attribution theory. Taking responsibility for your actions is the key to improving your trading skills. Pause and ask yourself - What role did I play in my financial decisions?   After all, you were the one who listened to that source, and decided to act on that trade based on the rumour. Attributing results solely to external circumstances is what is known as having an ‘external locus of control’.   It's a concept coined by psychologist Julian Rotter in 1954. A trader with an external locus of control might say, "I made a profit because the markets are currently favourable."   Instead, strive to develop an "internal locus of control" and take ownership of your actions.   Assume that all trading results are within your realm of responsibility and actively seek ways to improve your own behaviour.   This is the fastest route to enhancing your trading abilities. A trader with an internal locus of control might proudly state, "My equity curve is rising because I am a disciplined trader who faithfully follows my trading plan." Author: Louise Bedford Source: https://www.tradinggame.com.au/
    • SELF IMPROVEMENT.   The whole self-help industry began when Dale Carnegie published How to Win Friends and Influence People in 1936. Then came other classics like Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins toward the end of the century.   Today, teaching people how to improve themselves is a business. A pure ruthless business where some people sell utter bullshit.   There are broke Instagrammers and YouTubers with literally no solid background teaching men how to be attractive to women, how to begin a start-up, how to become successful — most of these guys speaking nothing more than hollow motivational words and cliche stuff. They waste your time. Some of these people who present themselves as hugely successful also give talks and write books.   There are so many books on financial advice, self-improvement, love, etc and some people actually try to read them. They are a waste of time, mostly.   When you start reading a dozen books on finance you realize that they all say the same stuff.   You are not going to live forever in the learning phase. Don't procrastinate by reading bull-shit or the same good knowledge in 10 books. What we ought to do is choose wisely.   Yes. A good book can change your life, given you do what it asks you to do.   All the books I have named up to now are worthy of reading. Tim Ferriss, Simon Sinek, Robert Greene — these guys are worthy of reading. These guys teach what others don't. Their books are unique and actually, come from relevant and successful people.   When Richard Branson writes a book about entrepreneurship, go read it. Every line in that book is said by one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time.   When a Chinese millionaire( he claims to be) Youtuber who releases a video titled “Why reading books keeps you broke” and a year later another one “My recommendation of books for grand success” you should be wise to tell him to jump from Victoria Falls.   These self-improvement gurus sell you delusions.   They say they have those little tricks that only they know that if you use, everything in your life will be perfect. Those little tricks. We are just “making of a to-do-list before sleeping” away from becoming the next Bill Gates.   There are no little tricks.   There is no success-mantra.   Self-improvement is a trap for 99% of the people. You can't do that unless you are very, very strong.   If you are looking for easy ways, you will only keep wasting your time forgetting that your time on this planet is limited, as alive humans that is.   Also, I feel that people who claim to read like a book a day or promote it are idiots. You retain nothing. When you do read a good book, you read slow, sometimes a whole paragraph, again and again, dwelling on it, trying to internalize its knowledge. You try to understand. You think. It takes time.   It's better to read a good book 10 times than 1000 stupid ones.   So be choosy. Read from the guys who actually know something, not some wannabe ‘influencers’.   Edit: Think And Grow Rich was written as a result of a project assigned to Napoleon Hill by Andrew Carnegie(the 2nd richest man in recent history). He was asked to study the most successful people on the planet and document which characteristics made them great. He did extensive work in studying hundreds of the most successful people of that time. The result was that little book.   Nowadays some people just study Instagram algorithms and think of themselves as a Dale Carnegie or Anthony Robbins. By Nupur Nishant, Quora Profits from free accurate cryptos signals: https://www.predictmag.com/    
    • there is no avoiding loses to be honest, its just how the market is. you win some and hopefully more, but u do lose some. 
    • $CSCO Cisco Systems stock, nice top of range breakout, from Stocks to Watch at https://stockconsultant.com/?CSCOSEPN Septerna stock watch for a bottom breakout, good upside price gap
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.