Last week an interesting conversation took place in the BTA community.
The discussion started with this question:
What’s the single most valuable piece of advice you’d give to a fellow algo trader?
And it sparked some great responses.
Here are a few of my favorites (thanks to everyone who commented!):
The tribe has spoken!
And they’re all great responses. I agree with them all.
The tricky part with this question is, how do you pick the #1 most valuable piece of advice?
As you can see by the responses, they all vary.
It depends on the person, their goals, background, experience, current situation, and perspective.
If you ask me the #1 most valuable piece of advice, I’d probably give you a different answer on different days.
The truth is, trading isn’t about doing just thing well.
It’s about doing many things well.
And those things adjust over time as a trader develops.
Here’s 3 factors I think are important for people starting today:
- Trade Futures – these are the only truly low-correlated markets available, allowing you to smooth out your income with proper diversification,
- Prioritize trading, not coding – too many traders get stuck in a cycle of coding. They forget this is about trading, not beautiful code. I know many successful traders who don’t even know how to code, so don’t get stuck with coding (which is why all BTA courses include code to save you time, so you don’t have to code it yourself),
- Don’t overcomplicate it – start with the lowest-hanging fruit. Use a trading formula that works, markets that are easy to trade, and build a minimum viable portfolio of 3-4 strategies to launch and learn from.
So, what’s your #1 algo trading tip?
If you’re a BTA member, share it in the discussion here.
I’d love to hear it!
Happy trading,
Tomas.
PS. In Empowered Trader Issue #5, I share how I created a 30,000+ member trading community in the Czech Republic and used that as a research field to find out WHY most traders don’t make it. I also discuss the top 3 things successful traders do differently (the answers may seriously challenge your mindset!). If you want to know more, grab your copy here.
