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Page 74
to define what it is that I do to get out of trouble and just apply that all the time. So I took the time to painstakingly write down every detail of what I do. Then when I thought I had it all defined, I discovered there is more. So I went back and wrote the code. I learned by working for some very big successful traders. They would want me to program their years of intuitive trading style into a mechanical system. It can be done, but I need all the facts on paper. If they can't write it down, even to the smallest detail, then how can I read their minds? They have done so many things through the years that it becomes second nature to them, and they forget that they do it. If a person says that you can't program their intuitive trading style into a system, then they just don't know what their system is. Even if the rules change or are adaptive, that can be programmed also. Not many programmers will take the time to do code this way, and they cheap-shot it. I only did work for real-life successful traders. I didn't waste my time if they weren't for real. Why reinvent the wheel? Let's just put some rubber on it and make it better. Let's have the computer pick apart the intuitive trader's style and make it better. I must crutch by using a computer to trade. What I was afraid would get me labeled as a not-so-great trader has in fact made me a great trader. I don't have nerves of steel, but I have an instinct for honesty in testing, reality in trading, and I am a perfectionist at building trading systems. I would never go back to intuitive trading. I want to manage too much money, and the computer can trade better than I can any day.
Neal: Are you going to keep your current system?
Mark: I am. I am going to scientific software that is proprietary and Linux as an operating system. I use HP UNIX for the Ned Davis software now and a Sun Sparc 4 Unix. They don't ever crash.
Neal: Do you train traders?
Mark: I train everybody I come in contact with, but few (none) will listen. It is a lonely world in trading.

 
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