Judgement,Applied.
What discretionary trading means at Ostera, how judgement is prepared for, and why the firm works this way.
Discretionary trading is the practice of deciding, not delegating. Each decision is formed by a person, tested against evidence, and owned by the one who made it.
What It Means
Analysis informs. It does not decide.
Discretionary trading relies on human judgement: reading conditions as they develop, weighing evidence that does not fit neatly into a model, and deciding when to act and when to wait.
Responsibility for each outcome stays with the person who made the call.
Judgement, Prepared
Discretion is not instinct.
- Preparation
- A view is formed before it is acted on, with its reasoning stated plainly enough to be challenged.
- Review
- Each decision is revisited afterwards, so that the next one is better informed than the last.
Why Discretion
Rules fix the answer in advance.
Markets rarely repeat themselves exactly. Discretion allows the firm to respond to circumstances as they are, rather than as a fixed rule expected them to be.
Accountability
Freedom to decide, and to answer for it.
Discretion carries responsibility. A decision that belongs to a person cannot be disowned by pointing to a rule.