@Greg, nice article indeed, and most of it apply, apply to discretionary trading that is.

Whereas, an automated trading program might not learn from its mistakes, but its programmer might. A trading script might not love trading at all, or feel competitive, it certainly won't show its will to win. The trading methods won't care about its author's feeling or character either. It won't even know if you have a trading style or not. I have not seen automated programs feeling stressed out or emotionally entangled. No anxiety, no humility, displayed or coded.

There is planning, discipline, and execution. That's what a program is about after all. It doesn't care about risk or uncertainty. On the contrary, it will execute with 100% sureness whatever was coded, that it be good or bad.

Money management, position sizing, and risk management does apply whatever trading methods one wants to use, that it be using a machine or doing it by hand.

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An automated trading program is very focus, so focused in fact that it will executed whatever code it was giving and nothing else, no questions asked. The program does not see if it is right or wrong, it just executes, has no concept of achieving balance or gaining some perspective. It just does what it was program to do. It is up to the trading script designer to put in his/her program whatever code might be needed to accomplish its task.

So the task of designing an automated trading program might, or does, require an added set of skills in order to translate to code what might appear as discretionary, erratic, unemotional nuances in trading styles.

Amazing article! All is about professionalism and excecution plan. It doesn't matter the nature of the business, these major skills are very helpful to have as long as we are exposed to manage the risk/reward relationship.

Yes Omar - These skills are pretty Generic in trading and investment, but equally in business and management, and any complex environment.

I happen to know Steve Goldstein, the author, he coaches many traders, and ironically is often told Systematic Traders/Quants do not need coaching as their skills are purely logic based. - He has however found that when he does work with these guys, it helps them actually improve in all areas.

@Greg, you are right. An automated trading program starts with an individual trying to automate what was a discretionary trading system. And as such has the same personality traits as any trader. And therefore coaching strategy developers should also prove beneficial.

I am often tasked with translating my clients somewhat discretionary trading strategy into formal rules for EA programming, and it's a very interesting process both for me and my client, who often benefits from really questioning why and when he does certain things. And most of the time it's perfectly doable.

Plan your trade and trade your plan, and who does the second bit better than a computer :)

it's right that trading is a passion. When the passion becomes an addiction then you should get out.....

Great read

Hi Greg - This is brilliant, it captures so much of the 'Human Element' of trading. This is the part which has held back much of my own 'Non-Human' trading over the years. - We forget just how much the human aspect plays when it comes to 'Non-Human' trading systems. Thank you.

Lee - I agree this is a great article. Not sure how it helps you as a systematic non-human trader, I have always been of the assumption that the whole idea was to remove the human element from trading.

There is no system yet which does not rely on non-human elements. - Design, Creativity, planning, recalibration, management, implemnatation, execution, etc, etc.