A lot of people ask me how I feel about automated trading programs. These are the little bots in your system that look for a certain set of conditions and then execute a trade based on those parameters. It sounds good in theory, right? A program isn’t going to get fearful of initiating a trade or greedy when the trade nears its profit target. It isn’t going to be sleeping at night or going to a J-O-B or any other number of distractions from the charts so it can be working ‘round the clock. It isn’t going to doubt itself and wonder if this is the best trigger for the trade or the exit of the trade. It is going to just do what it is programmed to do. And, after all, isn’t that what we’ve come to understand is necessary in trading?! How useful is all of that automation, though, when market conditions change? And they will change.