Automated futures trading: environment effect on the decision making

In this paper, automated trading systems for futures trading will be viewed from the perspective of software agents. The market environment plays an essential role in decision making process of such agents. Decisions and capabilities of such systems are heavily dependent on trading account size. Key factors affecting the account size will be described in this text. There are typical limitations to decision making in automated trading systems, e.g. in the form of money management (risk management) rules. These limitations will be discussed in context of environment perception and interaction. We will be focused mainly on trading with futures and commodities, but most principles are applicable to other, similar, domains as well, e.g. stock market trading.