Robotics 101: How to Trade Using a Robot

Monday, 27/07/2015 | 15:59 GMT by Jeff Patterson
  • It’s awesome that robots do all the work themselves. In other ways, it’s incredibly hard to keep your hands off.
Robotics 101: How to Trade Using a Robot
Photo: Bloomberg

The Robots I’ve been trading since 2013 are what I call “stand-alone” Robots. You turn them on, and you don’t ever touch them again.

In some ways, it’s awesome that they do all the work themselves. In other ways, it’s incredibly hard to keep your hands off.

It’s so easy to look at a trade and wonder, “Why the heck are you in that, Robot? Can’t you see we’re in a downtrend? That long trade is garbage.” And when the trade does, in fact, turn out to be garbage, that only makes it worse.

Or maybe you’re in a trade and it’s just not going anywhere. Or maybe it’s almost to the target. Or maybe a news event is coming out. Or maybe it’s far away from Fair Value, and you really, really want to be trading in the opposite direction.

In any of those cases, it’s difficult to trade a stand-alone Robot. In those cases, you may know more than it does.

However, it doesn’t have to be one way or the other. Sometimes Robots and humans can work together. It would cost thousands and thousands of dollars to try to build all every possible human decisions into a single stand-alone Robot. And it’s unnecessary.

All you need to do is make the necessary analysis, and then turn a Robot on. That’s it. The Robot does the actual dirty work of entering and exiting the trade while the human decides when it’s time to trade and a human adjusts the trade size. It can be a beautiful thing: humans and Robots working together in perfect harmony.

I’ve started trading in this manner this month in one of my accounts, and I plan to begin trading this way in multiple accounts. I am still trading all of my stand-alone Robots in other accounts, but my trading partner and I are getting back into the game, with a Robot’s help, of course.

The Robots I’ve been trading since 2013 are what I call “stand-alone” Robots. You turn them on, and you don’t ever touch them again.

In some ways, it’s awesome that they do all the work themselves. In other ways, it’s incredibly hard to keep your hands off.

It’s so easy to look at a trade and wonder, “Why the heck are you in that, Robot? Can’t you see we’re in a downtrend? That long trade is garbage.” And when the trade does, in fact, turn out to be garbage, that only makes it worse.

Or maybe you’re in a trade and it’s just not going anywhere. Or maybe it’s almost to the target. Or maybe a news event is coming out. Or maybe it’s far away from Fair Value, and you really, really want to be trading in the opposite direction.

In any of those cases, it’s difficult to trade a stand-alone Robot. In those cases, you may know more than it does.

However, it doesn’t have to be one way or the other. Sometimes Robots and humans can work together. It would cost thousands and thousands of dollars to try to build all every possible human decisions into a single stand-alone Robot. And it’s unnecessary.

All you need to do is make the necessary analysis, and then turn a Robot on. That’s it. The Robot does the actual dirty work of entering and exiting the trade while the human decides when it’s time to trade and a human adjusts the trade size. It can be a beautiful thing: humans and Robots working together in perfect harmony.

I’ve started trading in this manner this month in one of my accounts, and I plan to begin trading this way in multiple accounts. I am still trading all of my stand-alone Robots in other accounts, but my trading partner and I are getting back into the game, with a Robot’s help, of course.

About the Author: Jeff Patterson
Jeff Patterson
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