Date:
Author:
Akshat Sogani
001
A Phrase That Sells
In India, 'algo trading' has become one of the most abused phrases in finance. For most, it means a manual strategy with a scheduler attached a rule that fires an order at a set time, or an indicator that triggers a webhook.
It automates the clicking, nothing more. The logic is still a human hunch, the risk still unmanaged, the infrastructure still absent. Calling this algorithmic is like calling a timer a computer. The label sells; the substance rarely follows.
002
A Script Is Not a System
The gap is not automation versus manual it is a script versus a system. A script executes a rule. A system governs the whole lifecycle: how data is validated before a decision, how positions are sized against risk, how orders are routed and reconciled, how it behaves when a feed drops or a market gaps.
One is a single instruction; the other is an operating environment with observability, failover, and controls. The retail product automates the easy part the click. Real infrastructure automates the hard part the discipline, the risk, and the recovery when things break.
003
Where the Illusion Breaks
This distinction is not academic; it is where money is lost. A scheduled script has no concept of a stale price, a partial fill, or a position that has quietly drifted out of sync with the exchange. It cannot pause itself when volatility spikes or a data source fails.
It assumes the world behaves. When it does not and markets always eventually do not the script keeps firing blindly into conditions it was never built to survive. What looks like automation is often just unmanaged risk running faster than a human could.
004
What Systematic Actually Means
Real systematic trading is defined by what surrounds the strategy, not the strategy itself. It is validated data, disciplined position sizing, monitored execution, reconciliation, and controlled failure the same engineering that keeps institutional platforms alive.
The signal is the smallest part. This is the line that separates a product you rent from infrastructure you can trust with capital. Once you see it, the misnomer becomes obvious: most 'algo trading' in India was never algorithmic at all.
