Question 1

Is discretionary trading bad?

Accepted Answer

Not bad, just harder to measure. Because the rules live in a person's judgment rather than on paper, a discretionary method is tough to test, review, and repeat the same way every time.

Question 2

Why is discretionary trading so hard to be consistent at?

Accepted Answer

Emotion and changing conditions push people to act differently on similar setups. The same chart can produce two different decisions on two different days, which makes results hard to attribute to any one cause.

Question 3

Can you test a discretionary strategy?

Accepted Answer

Only partly. You can test the parts you can write down as rules. The judgment that is left in your head cannot be backtested directly, which is the core reason discretionary methods resist measurement.