The DRY principle stands for "Do not repeat yourself". This axiom is commonly referenced in the practice of software engineering. However, it applies equally well for traders and system developers. A good trader will come up with many ideas for systems, ideas about ways of trading, and questions about market behavior. This creativity is important. … Continue reading DRY + Deep Dive Principles

A non-price based quantitative measure for evaluation of trading performance might be comparing how closely you enter or exit a position to a peak or valley and/or based on subsequent retracement. A discretionary trader or trading system that has a high peak/valley hit ratio in some markets reveals that the trader may be trading with … Continue reading Non profit based performance metric

Futures traders that trade "market open" markets often have a limited window of exceptional opportunity during the first few hours after the market opens. Strict day traders need to be careful opening positions near the close because, without ability to hold, there is a higher probability of being forced out of a trade. While overnight … Continue reading Decreasing performance anxiety

Let's imagine you have a profitable system already and you want to see if you can improve the results by using discretion or maybe you have a quasi-defined strategy that you think could work with discretion. Below, I list steps you might take to go about the conversion to increase your probability of success: Decrease … Continue reading Converting a quantitative system into a graybox

The two fundamental and defining questions that all discretionary traders need to ask themselves are: Why are you trading with discretion when you could be trading a well developed and tested strategy? The answer "it is too difficult or it can't be done" are not sufficient. You need to know precisely why you are using … Continue reading Two Defining Fundamental Questions