The Most Expensive Bug in My Trading System Was Me

Every automated system that still has a human with override permissions is not an automated system. It is a hybrid, and the human half never gets profiled.

I spent years shipping trading rules I described as systematic. Entry conditions in code, stop distance in code, position size in code. And then, most days, I would do something slightly different from what the code said, because I was watching, and watching produces opinions. Skip the setup that looks weak. Flatten before the news. Take the profit early because giving it back would feel worse than never having it.

None of that shows up in a trade log. A trade log records what happened. It does not record what would have happened, so the gap between the two is invisible by construction. That gap is the thing I wanted a number for.

It turns out you can get one with about eighty...

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