The Essence of System Trading — and How to Evaluate It
The idea of 'removing human emotion and trading mechanically by rule'. Its four-stage architecture, the verification procedure (backtest, out-of-sample, forward test), and the seven checkpoints for seeing through EA and signal-service products.
Core Concept — Why "Mechanise"?
The idea behind system trading is simple. Remove human emotion and discretion, and trade mechanically by predefined rules.
Why? As covered in Risk Management and the Five Universal Principles, human instinct wants to do, precisely, the forbidden things in trading (can't extend winners, can't cut losers). So you hand judgement to a machine and shut instinct out — that is the motive.
About 45 of the 98 catalogued methods fall into this category — the largest. That much demand exists for "removing discretion". But the quality of products meeting that demand ranges enormously, and many "mechanised" products are black boxes inside. This article builds an eye for telling decent ones from the rest.
How to Read
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The Esoteric Volumes · By Application
What lies beyond this point is opened only to those who have applied.
Capital, discipline, psychology. The chapters that sit behind technique describe the bone-work that keeps an operator in the market for years. Access requires a written application, reviewed by hand.