We are a group of professional traders and principals of a quantitative research firm that develops strategy and periodicity diverse risk modeling tools suited to larger, longer time horizon portfolios. Our own internal process involves using this webspace as a collective resource for sharing both discretionary information during intraday sessions and as a sort of virtual think tank for our ongoing quant research. A big part of that ongoing research has consistently shown that the ‘Holy Grail’ of the purely mechanical, single market intraday trading strategy that produces near linear returns without significant ongoing adaptation DOES NOT exist. As such we have found that for most traders pursuing single market intraday strategies, a dynamically adaptive, risk focused discretionary approach is likely to bear the most fruit. Ironic, given that rigid, purely mechanical systems are what the vast majority of retail traders (including us at one time) seem to be in relentless pursuit of. In the spring of 2010, we created a private, member only forum behind the blog devoted to our ongoing discussions related to discretionary analysis of market structure, price action and order flow to other like minded retail traders as a sort of experiment. Since we have always found the format in which we use this space privately to flesh out ideas to be so beneficial, we wondered if it might be even more fruitful to increase the sheer numbers of those participating in this process and with that, DTG as it exists today was born. By any measure, the experiment has been almost unfathomably successful for us in terms of it’s role in keeping us sharp in whatever discretionary or quantitative work we happen to be engaged in at the time. Sharing our experiences and interacting with the greater numbers continues to spark new ideas as well as serve to cement the ones already implemented. That we can also give back to the trading brotherhood by way of helping like minded aspiring traders in the process makes our little experiment a huge win on all fronts in our book.
For information about the type of trading that is the foundation for what we share here, follow this link: Methodology Introduction