Experience vs Strategy

[Jerry_joy]

What plays a bigger role in long-term trading success gaining experience over time or having a solid strategy?

[fedegmail]

They’re both very important, but in my opinion, experience matters more.

With experience, if your strategy loses its edge, you’ll know how to adapt it to changing market conditions or develop new methods.
Without experience, relying solely on one solid strategy is like betting everything on a single horse. At one point in time, it might lose its edge, or perform poorly during extraordinary market situations that you don’t know how to handle without experience.

So, while both matter a lot, I personally believe experience is the bigger factor for long-term trading success.

PS: it also depends on what kind of experience. Drawing random lines and call them support, resistance, trend lines, and Fibonacci levels, is good experience to get some likes on Trading Forums, but it doesn’t count as experience to be profitable in trading.

[tommor]

A landmark experiment in how new traders can get started was the Turtle Traders’ experience back in the 80’s.

This proved amongst other things two points relevant to this question. A rational strategy can get almost anyone started as a winning trader with zero experience. But it is experience in trading that keeps the trader using the rules of the strategy.

[pink_hat_trader]

@Jerry_joy

What plays a bigger role

Hi Jerry,

This current thread will interest you (a lot!) -

The Trader or The Strategy - Which Is More Important?

[hammer_wm] Too much importance is placed on the strategy and setup rather than the trader that employs the strategy and picks the setup. The fact is, almost any strategy can make money if it is paired with the proper setup and is properly executed by the trader. The strategy is the tool and the trader is the craftsman. If the craftsman can’t use his tools properly, nothing that he builds will be of high quality. Is there a point to getting a bigger, better, or newer tool to improve your resu…

The wording of the question isn’t exactly the same as yours, but most of the replies in that thread do address the question you’re asking.

Almost all the recent posts from experienced and successful traders in that thread seem to be saying that the solid strategy’s far more important.

And they’re right.

Nobody’s suggesting that “experience,” or “the trader,” or “psychology” are UNimportant, too, of course, but I think the key point is that without a solid strategy, nothing else is really relevant, because you can’t possibly make steady profits. It’s just the one thing on which everything else depends.

As a professional psychologist, myself, in some ways I’d love to be able to pretend (as Mark Douglas shamelessly did) that those other things are just as important, but I’m afraid that wishing it doesn’t make it so.

[TheLoneRangeBar]

Maybe they’re not really two such different things, in practice, at least in the sense that only experienced traders are likely to have a solid strategy and the skills to apply it profitably?

[Jordan.B]

Both are important but having a solid strategy probably matters more at the start. Experience helps you get better but without a good plan, you’re kinda just guessing.

[Jadzia.Daxtrader]

@Jordan.B

Both are important but having a solid strategy probably matters more at the start

Not just “at the start”.

It matters more. Period.

Without a robust strategy, a “proven edge”, there’s no long-term income.

In the world of trading, many things, admittedly, are complicated, interpretative, and opinion-based, but this one’s about as black and white as you can get.

[chen2020]

Experience wins out. You can have a killer strategy but until you’ve been through the good and bad, you won’t really get it. Experience teaches you stuff no strategy alone can.

[OscarR123]

I feel like it’s all about how you handle yourself. You can have a great strategy and tons of experience but if you’re not chill and patient, it’s gonna be tough. Keeping your cool and sticking with your plan is what really counts in the long run.

[Jerry_joy]

Thanks for sharing this thread! I noticed a lot of the replies were quite similar, which is why I decided to start a new thread to bring a fresh perspective and hopefully get a more diverse range of opinions.

[fedegmail]

@pink_hat_trader

Almost all the recent posts from experienced and successful traders in that thread seem to be saying that the solid strategy’s far more important.

Is there any proof they are successful traders? Like, is there any MyFxBook link shared here to verify that? Just wondering what defines success here

[pink_hat_trader]

@Jerry_joy

I noticed a lot of the replies were quite similar, which is why I decided to start a new thread to bring a fresh perspective

Thanks - sorry: I didn’t realise you’d already seen it!

@fedegmail

Like, is there any MyFxBook link shared here to verify that?

I don’t know, but personally I expect that from marketers and other promotional posters, more than from successful people with nothing to prove to anyone. It’s a matter of judgment, I suppose, and maybe yours is different from mine, which is fine too, of course.

[fedegmail]

Been too long in this industry to believe anyone is profitable without seeing proof.
As William Deming said: “Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion”

Just different view, thanks for sharing!