Topic: Question: Why do we obsess about optimizing our strategies?
This is a rhetorical question -- since I think I already know the answer -- but I thought I would pose it anyways to see if anyone was interested or had some insight to share or even had a question.
There are many manual (forex) traders who are profitable. In fact, manual traders may be more profitable than algorithmic traders. I think this is because as a manual trader one has to pay attention to details and the data and have some basic understanding of the indicators being used. An algorithmic trader simply inserts his (magically-generated) EA into the MT4 platform and then keeps his fingers crossed that it makes money.
Manual traders use indicators -- just like we do here. However, they rarely (if ever) think about optimizing or calibrating their indicator's settings -- i.e. they simply use the default values. It appears the default settings values for most indicators are "good enough" for most time frames and most currency pairs.
So my question -- if manual traders use indicators and if manual traders are more profitable than algorithmic traders, then why do we spend so much time worrying about optimizing / calibrating the settings used by indicators in our software-generated strategies?