As to 6 I meant the basics, of course. As to my 4, it depends on your 1. If you have the discipline to follow a set of your own rules better than a machine can do, then why not. But even in that case, I don't see why would anyone work hard doing manually exactly the same tasks that a machine can do. I mean, why did we invent machines if not for this purpose? Not to mention the need to sleep and rest, which means missing possibilities. A machine can work 24/7.
I beg to disagree that your numbers 5-10 can cause profitability. If no 3-4, nothing can bring profitability.
I meant you need all 10. It isn't that good risk management alone gives you profitability, but that if you don't have it, you won't be profitable long term.
For the manual part, I will give an example:
Suppose you have a trend following strategy. It identifies the direction of an upward trend, then waits for a pullback (to say, a 50% retracement of the move) to enter long. You automate this strategy.
Now, suppose the system signals an upward trend and places the order at 50% . Price retraces to 49% and then takes off for new highs. Your automated system still has the order to buy, because it wasn't triggered. When price next comes down to that level where the order is, do you still want to take the trade long? For me, no. You missed the boat, and the second time it returns to that area, it is no longer the same conditions. If you argue: put the order at 49%, well what if it retraces to 48% instead? So that doesn't work. If you say, as soon as it makes a new high, then cancel that order, well what if it doesn't quite make a new high and now goes back to your 50% level? It is now making lower highs and lower lows directly into your order Do you still want to take that long order? Having bounced at the 49% retracement, maybe some trades now have their stops under that low. Is it really the same as what you intended to trade? In theory you could automate it 'somehow', but in practice that will be extremely difficult.
Another example is that sometimes the market can behave wildly. It has quite recently based on Trump's speeches on tariffs, his tweets etc. An automated strategy will just run, whereas if you are manual, you can walk away. Even High Frequency Trading firms can have an 'off' switch where they just decide to stop the automated strategies.
There are advantages to automation, but I wanted to point out there can be disadvantages and advantages for manual trading too. And if a person doesn't have discipline, will they even be able to let an automated system run without changing it or tweaking it or giving up on it when in a large drawdown? There is also something about watching and trading a market live that can help understanding.
