Discretionary trading what is it, What is discretionary forex trading? – IC Markets | Official Blog

You completed this course. Get Completion Certificate System-Based vs. The upside is that, for some traders, it is far easier to maintain a discipline about their trading when there is no discretion in the decision-making process.

Developing trading systems, however, is a major undertaking.

While some traders are able to use off-the-shelf software programs to back-test historical data, many run into problems.

Good luck with that!

Another problem with developing a trading system is that the available market data is often corrupted with inaccuracies. Finally, and most significant of all, is that many developers tend to optimize their systems to the point where they are of no predictive value.

Algorithmic Trading Vs Discretionary Trading

Being a discretionary trader is no walk in the park either. Discretionary traders have rules to follow, just like their programmer counterparts.

The distinction is that discretionary traders apply those rules based on their subjective understanding of each situation. This is not to imply that a discretionary trader can get away with lapses in discipline.