Another rhetorical question(s)

Could a few successful years trading at a persons own discretion be just a setup for a fall latter?

Kind of like a gambler on a lucky run. Is it possible the better you do the more risk you take which ultimately leads to your own demise? Can you become confident in your own genius as a trader but really just be in a streak?

Three separate times I took 5k to 100 k trading discretionary. No system, no stats just pure gut. Guess where that 300k eventually went?

If you have your system Turn off during a volatile period or during a calm period your missing a HUGE window of trading opportunities. whose to say it won't turn off or on by false signals. You gotta manually program it every time to avoid news releases.

It is indeed difficult because even if you do get the volatility analyzed you have no guidance as to when or where to exit trades (except on opposite signals) and there is no indication of how you should set your stops or what contract size to trade. It is just like having one piece of a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle and trying to figure out the whole picture, it is very hard to get there.

Now what many people try at first is to setup a system with the entry signals and a fixed TP, SL and contract size. Try this and you will find that with ANY system you will NEVER achieve long term profitable results. This is because you are not looking at the big picture and you are just taking into account the most irrelevant aspect of trades, the entry. Knowing when to exit trades and how to trade is much more important and this is often a fact neglected by people new to automated system design. Especially for those who automate out of failure from discretionary trading.

Well If you don't program manually to avoid news then you have to account for a sudden loss at anytime you see the price randomly fly off the chart. Some systems use this to event to make profit. If that is your goal it's still a ridiculous amount of uncertainty at stake.

Well If you don't program manually to avoid news then you have to account for a sudden loss at anytime you see the price randomly fly off the chart. Some systems use this to event to make profit. If that is your goal it's still a ridiculous amount of uncertainty at stake.

Let me clarify another point that has been circulating my head. If this guy traded 5k to 100k he obviously didn't do it one contract at a time. That is purely insensible. When you have more money you have the ability to risk proportionately more contracts. 1% gain on 10000 is 100, 1% gain on 50000 is 500. So why would he trade one contract at a time till he blew his account? or one contract at a time to make his account? Why would he veer off track and not pull himself away if he was trained enough to make 5k turn into 100k?

If he had one destructive day of compulsive trading that is in no way a means to discredit the art of discretionary trading. Thats like discouraging bus drivers because one randomly decides to go 100 mph to get the kids to school faster. Or a surgeon seeing that he cut one artery the wrong way, doesn't accept failure, so he keeps cutting and sewing different parts of the artery in a maddening lethal unorthodox way. This is a form of insanity "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." And, It shouldn't be connected with trading. I feel bad for anyone who was discouraged by this discussion to question their own ability to continue trading with success.

Dr. Phil (sidney7)since you are infatuated with me and can't get me out of your head let me clarify. I traded discretionary for around 7 years. Yes 3 different times I took my account from 5k to over 100k but ultimately gave it all back to the market. Why? Because discretionary is fatally flawed. I think what may offend you and is driving you to diatribes is thought you can be successful at it yet on your way to a plane crash. I realize it is hard to come to that realization but better now to stop and form a mechanical system before you blow your account out. I am not saying have to automate although automation has some great benefits. I am saying a rules based system that is based on solid probabilities with good money management is the only way to win in the market long term.

Let me also clarify that my original post in this thread was not in my discretionary days. That original post speaks of my transition from discretionary to mechanical. I was developing a system and would abandon it's rules because I had so much discretionary baggage that still need to be purged from system. I was like a recovering discretionaryaholic that would go on wild binges. It was dark it was ugly and it was automation that finally got me over the hump and allowed me to let my system run which has lead to a nice equity curve.

I hope this give you more information so you can diagnose my psychiatric health much better.

Why are you guys entertaining the ramblings of this guy (sidney7) who clearly has no grasp of programming concepts, just spouts off nonsense in areas he has no expertise in, makes huge general assumptions about other people's systems which he has no first hand knowledge of, challenges people's claims with not reasonable cause, and continuously makes ridiculous assumptions. Nothing this person has said so far has contributed anything positive or informative to this discussion. To the original thread starter, I have never advocated this, but you do have the option to just ban anyone you feel is not providing anything constructive to this thread.