Lornz 

Maybe I should post the results and sell my "system" to the unknowing public?

Are you ever going to talk about your statistical ideas?

Moderator Notice Note: A few posts have been deleted which may make the last day or two of the conversation hard to follow, sorry. This is because a vendor failed to disclose (as is required) his true status before posting, and it took me a day to "catch up" and delete his posts.

Mike

Thanks for everybody for sharing your thoughts. There are lots of interesting things in your posts.

Now I just want to cite from one of the posts of @worldwary, because the following part seems an important thing of the topic to me:

worldwary 

Trading is gambling by its nature. The trick is whether you're able to consistently keep losses small and winners large. If so, you could trade using a Magic 8 Ball as far as I'm concerned. It could be argued that all these trading systems, discretionary or mechanical, are really heuristics designed to override our natural tendency to do the opposite: exit winners early, and hold onto losers in the hope that they'll "turn around." Use whatever method gives you enough confidence to override those natural instincts.

Arpad 

Thanks for everybody for sharing your thoughts. There are lots of interesting things in your posts. Now I just want to cite from one of the posts of @ worldwary, because the following part seems an important thing of the topic to me:

If you think of trading as gambling then you have to position your self as the 'house' where the odds are in your favor. Or, you have to view it as gambling games where the odds can be calculated, like counting cards at the 21 table, or knowing that slot machines are programmed to give payouts a certain percentage of the time, you choose a slot machine that you observe has not given a payout in the last 100 pulls. You have to choose a game (strategy) where you have an edge

Having had experiences with both, this comment is spot on!

ThatManFromTexas 

Discretionary is like a hooker quoting you prices and services available .... Mechanical is like a wife...

Things have changed so much from 2011. And now coding mechanical strategy with limit orders are relatively easier on platforms like NinjaTrader or SierraCharts.

RM99 

Having said ALL of that, there ARE limitations to auto trading. Auto trading (for most platforms) leans toward market orders. limit orders present numerous "gotcha" coding difficulties. Partial fills. Basically, it opens up several decision tree possibilities that must also be included in your code. (it can be done, but it's very difficult). Auto trading challenges and difficulties can push you toward more simplistic methods (which I'm not so sure is a bad thing). In addition to challenges with limit orders (encouraging market orders), it also encourages "next bar" execution, rather than intrabar. There are several challenges with backtesting, then again, these challenges are present whether you trade discretionary or auto.