The Art and Science of Trading

Is trading an art or a science?

Some traders are artists, using purely intuitive methods to decide when to trade. Other are more like scientists. Scientific trading is purely systematic with no room for human judgment. Among the very best traders in the world, you will find both discretionary artists and systematic scientists.

What distinguishes good traders from bad ones? Good traders all follow certain rules. These rules are virtually the same for all outstanding traders, regardless of their preference for intuition or algorithms.The key rules are scientific – they are underpinned by the mathematics and financial theory which systematic traders are well versed in. But consistently successful artistic traders also follow the same rules.

In contrast, bad traders do not follow these rules. They use a dangerous mixture of gut feeling, and half baked pseudo scientific methods. Most of them will lose money, unless they are especially lucky.

This book is about combining art and science. Part of a successful trading strategy can be purely artistic – down to your intuition. It could also be entirely scientific. But however you trade you must always follow certain key, scientifically grounded, rules. If you also follow these rules, you will have a better chance of succeeding as a trader.