Trading: directional or non directional?

I make this thread because, with a forum in which majority are losers, i think it'd be interesting to highlight that directional trading may be a cause, or not. Directional trading to me is using discretion...like buying support etc , non directional stuff like arbitrage and spreads.

what way do you trade? do you have any opinions on the other ?

Directional, buying support etc as you said. So far so good this year +35%, but all could change...!

directional with hedging. 40% for june.

I think all types of trading require the same basic traits (discipline, resilience to losses, etc) in order to be successful, regardless of whether you're picking direction or doing arb.

What's the hypothesis here, that directional trading is bad?

''Directional trading to me is using discretion...''


What a strange statement to make. Directional trading can be done using a mechanical system therefore by definition there will be no discretion involved.

R

It is a rare trade that is completely non directional.

Now you can say "but the view wasn't taken on the direction of the market" - and yet I could give counter examples to both the logical possibilities there.

For example, you can take a non directional view by shorting a stock, typically.

Or you can take a directional view by buying straddles or calendar spreads. In fact with the latter, in certain circumstances, you've just changed your non directional view on a commodity to a directional view on interest rates...

Anyhow, just think of price as one axis, think of trading as multidimensional... a field... then everything is directional

I would guess that the median sell side trader makes more than the median buy side trader does.

"where are all the customers yachts?"

(I know this does not specifically answer the question, but I thought it pertinent).