Want the world's simplest (Winning!!) trading system? I'll give it to you. (I'm just in a generous mood.)
I actually got this from Bill Gallaher, years and years ago - but it still works like a ridiculously simple charm. Amazingly, very few people will take advantage of a simple trading system like this, just BECAUSE it's so simple - they want something complicated, something you need a computer to use. Here's a dollar - buy a clue: Complicated doesn't automatically mean "better".
I used this system as my primary trading strategy when I first started out as a trader, primarily because I was too ignorant of the markets to be able to reliably use anything else. With it, I made an average monthly return of 15-20% my first year as a full-time trader (that comes out to about 200% profit for the year). And I assure you that I was not "lucky". If anything, I was unlucky, whenever there was a part for luck to play. For example, if I had to decide whether to buy gold or silver, I invariably bought the one that didn't make the most dramatic move. Nonetheless, operating in a commodities market that was all but dead, I made very good money.
And here's how I did it: I bought if the market made a new high based on the last ten trading days. I sold if the market made a new low. I put my stop-loss orders just outside the previous ten-day trading range. Additionally, I never entered a trade where my initial risk was more than $1,000 (and I really tried to keep it down around $500). That is, if the previous 10-day trading range was so wide that I would have had to place my stop at a point that could have resulted in more than a $1,000 loss, then I didn't do the trade.
That's it. The only caveat was that I followed the very, very smart rule of "higher high or lower low" when looking to re-enter a market that I'd been stopped out of for a loss. If I got stopped out after selling short, I would only initiate a new short position in that market if the market reached a lower low than the point at which I'd originally sold short. If you test this system out (go back and look at how it would have done), you'll see that that one simple rule makes a world of difference in total profitability.
This is obviously not a system that will work well in an extremely volatile market, but overall, month in and month out, I've found very few strategies that can consistently outperform it.
Sometimes, simple is best.
For some great trades on the board right now, CLICK HERE FOR INSIDE INFO.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Review of "Stealth Forex"
Stealth Forex is one of the very best trading tools you can get, and well worth the reasonable price.
Let me confess up front that I'm inclined to like this system simply because of the way it was developed - that is, a married couple, with no previous trading experience, taught themselves to become very good currency traders (and then put their trading strategy into a software system). I'm always partial to independent traders who put forth the time and effort required to learn how to be successful at market investing.
One of the best things about Stealth Forex is indeed the fact that "real people" (i.e., not just professional trading system developers) put it together. Martin, the husband half, provides excellent after-sale support with any installation or operational questions one may have - responding promptly (less than 24 hours). I don't know about you, but I always feel just a little bit uncomfortable the first time I'm using any kind of software program, and it's very reassuring to know that you can talk straight to the guy who BUILT the software package.
Stealth Forex actually contains 4 different trading strategies that cover everything from extremely short-term "scalping" trades to long-term position trading. That versatility makes it useful for virtually every different type of currency trader. Not to mention that getting 4 profitable trading strategies for the price of one is a pretty sweet deal.
The one drawback I see (and this is just personal with me) is that the software is designed to work specifically with Metatrader. Nothing wrong with Metatrader - I just don't like being tied to it. Of course, you can adapt the system, and trade using something besides Metatrader (which is exactly what I do), but it's just an extra little something that I wish wasn't necessary. Hopefully, at some point, they'll make Stealth Forex integrateable with more generic trading platforms.
The most important thing about Stealth Forex is simply the fact that it's GOOD. It works. Remember, these are the very trading strategies that Martin and his wife have used to make their living as traders. They can't AFFORD for it not to work! Finally, Stealth Forex is a good deal - a real bargain at a mere $199, an amount that you can use Stealth Forex to make back ten-times-over in no-time-flat. When you compare that - a 4-strategy system (which, by the way, comes with free updates for life) - that actually works! - for less than $200 - to things like the forex advisory service that I saw advertised the other day being marketed for the absurd price of $6,000 a year, well...guess which way my money goes.
If you are a currency trader, you owe it to yourself to order Stealth Forex and at least try it out. If for any reason you're not in love with it, or don't believe that using it can make you a hundred times over what you paid for it - hey, it comes with a full money-back guarantee. You've got nothing to lose, and lots of profits to gain. GO CHECK IT OUT HERE NOW.
JBM
Let me confess up front that I'm inclined to like this system simply because of the way it was developed - that is, a married couple, with no previous trading experience, taught themselves to become very good currency traders (and then put their trading strategy into a software system). I'm always partial to independent traders who put forth the time and effort required to learn how to be successful at market investing.
One of the best things about Stealth Forex is indeed the fact that "real people" (i.e., not just professional trading system developers) put it together. Martin, the husband half, provides excellent after-sale support with any installation or operational questions one may have - responding promptly (less than 24 hours). I don't know about you, but I always feel just a little bit uncomfortable the first time I'm using any kind of software program, and it's very reassuring to know that you can talk straight to the guy who BUILT the software package.
Stealth Forex actually contains 4 different trading strategies that cover everything from extremely short-term "scalping" trades to long-term position trading. That versatility makes it useful for virtually every different type of currency trader. Not to mention that getting 4 profitable trading strategies for the price of one is a pretty sweet deal.
The one drawback I see (and this is just personal with me) is that the software is designed to work specifically with Metatrader. Nothing wrong with Metatrader - I just don't like being tied to it. Of course, you can adapt the system, and trade using something besides Metatrader (which is exactly what I do), but it's just an extra little something that I wish wasn't necessary. Hopefully, at some point, they'll make Stealth Forex integrateable with more generic trading platforms.
The most important thing about Stealth Forex is simply the fact that it's GOOD. It works. Remember, these are the very trading strategies that Martin and his wife have used to make their living as traders. They can't AFFORD for it not to work! Finally, Stealth Forex is a good deal - a real bargain at a mere $199, an amount that you can use Stealth Forex to make back ten-times-over in no-time-flat. When you compare that - a 4-strategy system (which, by the way, comes with free updates for life) - that actually works! - for less than $200 - to things like the forex advisory service that I saw advertised the other day being marketed for the absurd price of $6,000 a year, well...guess which way my money goes.
If you are a currency trader, you owe it to yourself to order Stealth Forex and at least try it out. If for any reason you're not in love with it, or don't believe that using it can make you a hundred times over what you paid for it - hey, it comes with a full money-back guarantee. You've got nothing to lose, and lots of profits to gain. GO CHECK IT OUT HERE NOW.
JBM
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Review of "A Fortune Through Trading"
This one's different.
"A Fortune Through Trading", the professional futures trader's manual/coursebook authored by legendary trader Halston Adams, is a bit different, and a cut above, most trading books.
First of all, rather than being just a book about trading strategies (although it does contain plenty of that), Adams describes in detail his actual, day-to-day life as a professional trader. He tells you how his office is put together - what kind of computer setup he has - what his daily rountine, hour by hour, is like - what newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and television shows he watches as a trader - where he gets his information - in short, you get a detailed picture of exactly what the life of a professional trader looks like. And along the way, he provides insight into both the good (lots of holidays throughout the year, and take a vacation whenever you want) and the bad (he's often up at two or three A.M., watching the overseas markets trade or nursing a currency position, and he doesn't usually call it a day until about seven in the evening, when he's doen reviewing his trading for the day and watching "The Nightly Business Report"). It's this additional training in actually living a trader's life that makes "A Fortune Through Trading" more than just a book - instead, it's a complete manual on becoming a successful professional trader.
Another thing that's different about "A Fortune Through Trading" is that in the brave, new world of ever-more-complex technical trading systems, Adams is essentially a fundamentals trader. While he does make use of various technical analysis tools to help him pinpoint entry, exit, and stop-loss points (again, all fully explained in the course), Adams excels as an analyst of supply and demand conditions, and it's that analysis of the basic fundamentals of the commodity markets that is the source of his trades. (Understandably, Adams' expertise is greater in the basic commodity markets than in markets like bonds or stock index futures - although he is an accomplished currency trader. His personal favorite market is cotton, and he jokingly claims, "The cotton market and I know each other so well, we can finish each other's sentences, like an old married couple".) In his book, he does an excellent job of providing the aspiring trader with a wealth of market fundamentals information and analysis, and takes pride in being able to provide his readers with free access to essential information resources that many traders pay for.
One of the most notable things about "A Fortune Through Trading" is that Adams, unlike many trading book authors, is a good writer, and has a good sense of humor. Therefore, the coursebook is both easy to follow and entertaining to read. It is generously laced with anecdotes about Adams' personal experiences as a trader - and again, he shares the episodes that show him making mistakes just as readily as the ones in which he comes off looking like a true market wizard.
Adams is an independent trader, in the style of the great Jesse Livermore, who began his trading career with a very small amount of capital (and borrowed capital at that!), and was able to create a fortune (hence the title of the book). In fact, he makes it clear that he knew next to nothing about the futures markets - other than the potential to take a little money and make a lot of money - on the day he first walked into a brokerage firm. (He talked himself into a job with the branch manager, and although he only worked about a year as a broker, that's where he acquired his lifelong love affair with trading.)
Adams makes no bones about the fact that he is a diehard fan of the futures markets, and has never had much interest in stock trading, although he has done some over the years when a particular stock trade came to his attention. He stresses again and again the incredible advantage that the leverage available in futures trading provides for the small investor. One of the best strategic portions of the course is the section on risk management, which, it's clear, is an integral part of Adams' trading strategy. According to the text, over a 20+ year period, Adams' losing trades have averaged just $300-$500, while his winning trades have averaged $1,100-$1,500. And he is quick to point out that the superior job that he does of limiting risk puts him in the enviable position where he can be wrong on 3 out of 4 trades and still turn an overall profit (although he's quick to point out that his actual won/lost ratio is quite a bit better than that. He stresses the points that (A) losing trades are part of the game for a trader, and (B) therefore the important thing is to limit one's losses so that when that big, "home run" winning trade comes along, the trader still has plenty of capital to take full advantage of that opportunity.
About the only negative I can come up with regarding "A Fortune Through Trading" is that it simply leaves you wanting to hear more of Adams' stories about his trading career. In other words, it's one of those books that's so thoroughly enjoyable that you kind of hate to get to the end of it.
P.S. I just received word from Adams' publisher that he has just released a "Special Report" on a 3-market "trifecta" trading opportunity that he sees taking place in the 4th quarter of this year - in Adams unique style, he specifically declares, "starting the 2nd week in October". The publisher provided me with this link to the "Special Report", which he says Adams describes as "the trade that will make up for all the money you missed if you failed to buy wheat at $3.50 and gold at $500" - Click Here for the Special Report
"A Fortune Through Trading", the professional futures trader's manual/coursebook authored by legendary trader Halston Adams, is a bit different, and a cut above, most trading books.
First of all, rather than being just a book about trading strategies (although it does contain plenty of that), Adams describes in detail his actual, day-to-day life as a professional trader. He tells you how his office is put together - what kind of computer setup he has - what his daily rountine, hour by hour, is like - what newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and television shows he watches as a trader - where he gets his information - in short, you get a detailed picture of exactly what the life of a professional trader looks like. And along the way, he provides insight into both the good (lots of holidays throughout the year, and take a vacation whenever you want) and the bad (he's often up at two or three A.M., watching the overseas markets trade or nursing a currency position, and he doesn't usually call it a day until about seven in the evening, when he's doen reviewing his trading for the day and watching "The Nightly Business Report"). It's this additional training in actually living a trader's life that makes "A Fortune Through Trading" more than just a book - instead, it's a complete manual on becoming a successful professional trader.
Another thing that's different about "A Fortune Through Trading" is that in the brave, new world of ever-more-complex technical trading systems, Adams is essentially a fundamentals trader. While he does make use of various technical analysis tools to help him pinpoint entry, exit, and stop-loss points (again, all fully explained in the course), Adams excels as an analyst of supply and demand conditions, and it's that analysis of the basic fundamentals of the commodity markets that is the source of his trades. (Understandably, Adams' expertise is greater in the basic commodity markets than in markets like bonds or stock index futures - although he is an accomplished currency trader. His personal favorite market is cotton, and he jokingly claims, "The cotton market and I know each other so well, we can finish each other's sentences, like an old married couple".) In his book, he does an excellent job of providing the aspiring trader with a wealth of market fundamentals information and analysis, and takes pride in being able to provide his readers with free access to essential information resources that many traders pay for.
One of the most notable things about "A Fortune Through Trading" is that Adams, unlike many trading book authors, is a good writer, and has a good sense of humor. Therefore, the coursebook is both easy to follow and entertaining to read. It is generously laced with anecdotes about Adams' personal experiences as a trader - and again, he shares the episodes that show him making mistakes just as readily as the ones in which he comes off looking like a true market wizard.
Adams is an independent trader, in the style of the great Jesse Livermore, who began his trading career with a very small amount of capital (and borrowed capital at that!), and was able to create a fortune (hence the title of the book). In fact, he makes it clear that he knew next to nothing about the futures markets - other than the potential to take a little money and make a lot of money - on the day he first walked into a brokerage firm. (He talked himself into a job with the branch manager, and although he only worked about a year as a broker, that's where he acquired his lifelong love affair with trading.)
Adams makes no bones about the fact that he is a diehard fan of the futures markets, and has never had much interest in stock trading, although he has done some over the years when a particular stock trade came to his attention. He stresses again and again the incredible advantage that the leverage available in futures trading provides for the small investor. One of the best strategic portions of the course is the section on risk management, which, it's clear, is an integral part of Adams' trading strategy. According to the text, over a 20+ year period, Adams' losing trades have averaged just $300-$500, while his winning trades have averaged $1,100-$1,500. And he is quick to point out that the superior job that he does of limiting risk puts him in the enviable position where he can be wrong on 3 out of 4 trades and still turn an overall profit (although he's quick to point out that his actual won/lost ratio is quite a bit better than that. He stresses the points that (A) losing trades are part of the game for a trader, and (B) therefore the important thing is to limit one's losses so that when that big, "home run" winning trade comes along, the trader still has plenty of capital to take full advantage of that opportunity.
About the only negative I can come up with regarding "A Fortune Through Trading" is that it simply leaves you wanting to hear more of Adams' stories about his trading career. In other words, it's one of those books that's so thoroughly enjoyable that you kind of hate to get to the end of it.
P.S. I just received word from Adams' publisher that he has just released a "Special Report" on a 3-market "trifecta" trading opportunity that he sees taking place in the 4th quarter of this year - in Adams unique style, he specifically declares, "starting the 2nd week in October". The publisher provided me with this link to the "Special Report", which he says Adams describes as "the trade that will make up for all the money you missed if you failed to buy wheat at $3.50 and gold at $500" - Click Here for the Special Report
Monday, October 8, 2007
The Secret to Winning Trading
The Real “Secret” to Becoming a Winning Trader
There are, at last count, 27,342 books, software programs, manuals, and reports that promise to supply you with “the secret” to being a winning trader. I’ve no doubt that somewhere in all that stuff (some of which, I myself have written) there are indeed some little-known secrets, tips, and trading tricks of great value, and that can definitely improve your profitability as a trader. And for that reason, I still devour everything written on trading that I can get my hands on, even though I’ve been a successful trader for over two decades. I have yet to spend $50 or $100 on a trading book or strategy that did not at least give me some little tidbit that enabled me to make back, through adding the information to my trading, ten times the cost. Make a note: Every dime you spend on educating yourself as a trader is money well-spent. I’ve even learned profitable things from buying trading systems that don’t work at all!
But the truth is that few of these materials reveal the true secret to winning trading. Let’s fix that for you, all right?
The real secret to becoming a winning, successful trader is…trading. The simple, but often overlooked, truth is that trading is like any other skill in the world, from basketball to selling insurance - you get better at it by doing it, by practicing it. And all the reading, all the computerized, optimized trading systems in the world, are, in the end, no substitute for the experience of actual trading.
After ten or twelve years of trading, you will have experiences like this: You have a trade on in the soybean market - trading has been mixed during the day, up some, down some, and it’s now hovering just one side or the other of unchanged on the day. But somehow, you know that during the final hour of trading for the day, the market is going to go higher. How do you know it? You know it because you’ve seen this pattern of market action hundreds of times before, enough times that it has ingrained itself onto your memory cells. It’s not that you have an actual conscious memory of, “Oh, the soybean market went through this exact same trading pattern on such-and-such dates in the past”. Instead, it’s a more of a subconscious thing, something that presents itself as a strong gut feeling, an intuitive thing. But it’s a very strong feeling - you really do, as much as is ever humanly possible, know what the market is going to do.
And you don’t know it because of any computerized trading system that gives you a signal, or because of any trading tip that you read somewhere - you only know it because you have watched a market trade, day in and day out, for years. If you read interviews with the master traders, you will find that they all agree on this - that no one ever becomes a “market wizard” any other way except through accumulating years of trading experience.
So, if you want to become a super-successful trader…? Get busy trading.
Trade the markets, study the markets, watch the markets even when you aren’t actively involved in them. On that last part: I am, all modesty aside, a very, very good cotton trader. I’m a better cotton trader than I am a bean trader, gold trader, or bond trader. Why? - Because I have some magical affinity with the cotton market? - Because I got my hands on some super-duper cotton trading system? No. The reason is, plain and simple, because the cotton market is the one market that I have most faithfully, consistently followed throughout all my years of trading, even when I wasn’t actively trading it. I’ve taken 6 months or a year away from watching sugar or bonds or the Swiss franc, but I have nearly always kept an eye on the cotton market. And because of that, I simply know that market better than any other - and am therefore better at trading it.
With all that in mind, here’s another secret: You can’t adequately study every market on the board, and therefore you can only really become an expert trader in a handful of markets. In fact, a number of the most successful traders are “one-market traders” - that is, they only trade one market - bonds, beans, gold, cocoa, whatever. You should select 3 or 4 markets that you want to specialize in, and stick with them - watch the action in those selected markets every trading day, regardless of whether you have a position on. In fact, if you don’t have a position on, an excellent trading exercise is to practice thinking, “If I were going to enter this market right now, which way would I position myself? Where would I place my stop? What would my profit target be?” - and then see how subsequent market action either validates or contradicts your choices. I don’t mean that you can’t ever trade other markets, but the majority of your trading should always be in your chosen markets, and you should always keep in mind when trading other markets outside your specialties that you are at a disadvantage compared to traders for whom those are their markets of specialization.
There are plenty of little secrets to be discovered along the way in your journey as a professional trader, but the big secret to trading is now, has been, and always be…trading itself. To borrow from a famous advertising slogan, “Just DO it”.
JBM
The Science of Getting Rich
There are, at last count, 27,342 books, software programs, manuals, and reports that promise to supply you with “the secret” to being a winning trader. I’ve no doubt that somewhere in all that stuff (some of which, I myself have written) there are indeed some little-known secrets, tips, and trading tricks of great value, and that can definitely improve your profitability as a trader. And for that reason, I still devour everything written on trading that I can get my hands on, even though I’ve been a successful trader for over two decades. I have yet to spend $50 or $100 on a trading book or strategy that did not at least give me some little tidbit that enabled me to make back, through adding the information to my trading, ten times the cost. Make a note: Every dime you spend on educating yourself as a trader is money well-spent. I’ve even learned profitable things from buying trading systems that don’t work at all!
But the truth is that few of these materials reveal the true secret to winning trading. Let’s fix that for you, all right?
The real secret to becoming a winning, successful trader is…trading. The simple, but often overlooked, truth is that trading is like any other skill in the world, from basketball to selling insurance - you get better at it by doing it, by practicing it. And all the reading, all the computerized, optimized trading systems in the world, are, in the end, no substitute for the experience of actual trading.
After ten or twelve years of trading, you will have experiences like this: You have a trade on in the soybean market - trading has been mixed during the day, up some, down some, and it’s now hovering just one side or the other of unchanged on the day. But somehow, you know that during the final hour of trading for the day, the market is going to go higher. How do you know it? You know it because you’ve seen this pattern of market action hundreds of times before, enough times that it has ingrained itself onto your memory cells. It’s not that you have an actual conscious memory of, “Oh, the soybean market went through this exact same trading pattern on such-and-such dates in the past”. Instead, it’s a more of a subconscious thing, something that presents itself as a strong gut feeling, an intuitive thing. But it’s a very strong feeling - you really do, as much as is ever humanly possible, know what the market is going to do.
And you don’t know it because of any computerized trading system that gives you a signal, or because of any trading tip that you read somewhere - you only know it because you have watched a market trade, day in and day out, for years. If you read interviews with the master traders, you will find that they all agree on this - that no one ever becomes a “market wizard” any other way except through accumulating years of trading experience.
So, if you want to become a super-successful trader…? Get busy trading.
Trade the markets, study the markets, watch the markets even when you aren’t actively involved in them. On that last part: I am, all modesty aside, a very, very good cotton trader. I’m a better cotton trader than I am a bean trader, gold trader, or bond trader. Why? - Because I have some magical affinity with the cotton market? - Because I got my hands on some super-duper cotton trading system? No. The reason is, plain and simple, because the cotton market is the one market that I have most faithfully, consistently followed throughout all my years of trading, even when I wasn’t actively trading it. I’ve taken 6 months or a year away from watching sugar or bonds or the Swiss franc, but I have nearly always kept an eye on the cotton market. And because of that, I simply know that market better than any other - and am therefore better at trading it.
With all that in mind, here’s another secret: You can’t adequately study every market on the board, and therefore you can only really become an expert trader in a handful of markets. In fact, a number of the most successful traders are “one-market traders” - that is, they only trade one market - bonds, beans, gold, cocoa, whatever. You should select 3 or 4 markets that you want to specialize in, and stick with them - watch the action in those selected markets every trading day, regardless of whether you have a position on. In fact, if you don’t have a position on, an excellent trading exercise is to practice thinking, “If I were going to enter this market right now, which way would I position myself? Where would I place my stop? What would my profit target be?” - and then see how subsequent market action either validates or contradicts your choices. I don’t mean that you can’t ever trade other markets, but the majority of your trading should always be in your chosen markets, and you should always keep in mind when trading other markets outside your specialties that you are at a disadvantage compared to traders for whom those are their markets of specialization.
There are plenty of little secrets to be discovered along the way in your journey as a professional trader, but the big secret to trading is now, has been, and always be…trading itself. To borrow from a famous advertising slogan, “Just DO it”.
JBM
The Science of Getting Rich
A License to Print Money
In case no one's told you, we're smack in the middle of the biggest bull market in basic commodities in history. The stock market was king of the last part of the 20th century, but the futures market is "where the money is" now, and will be for the next 5-7 years.
I write financial/investment analysis, and trading education materials, for a living. In addition, I'm a an ex-broker and professional trader myself. One of the great things about my job is that I get to see a lot of trading material/software programs/etc. for FREE.
Therefore, what I intend to do in this BLOGSPOT is review some trading courses and programs for you - as well as pass on some of what little I've learned about trading over the past 20 years or so.
It's easy money time, kids - you just need some vague idea of what you're doing. AND it's fun! Futures trading is like the world's greatest rollercoaster compared to the dull ferris wheel of stock trading.
So, Welcome Aboard Captain Jack's Mystery Train to the Town of "Stinkin' Rich"! Enjoy the ride, make boo-koo bucks, and buy some poor kids some food, huh?
Let's rock'n'roll....
JBM
I write financial/investment analysis, and trading education materials, for a living. In addition, I'm a an ex-broker and professional trader myself. One of the great things about my job is that I get to see a lot of trading material/software programs/etc. for FREE.
Therefore, what I intend to do in this BLOGSPOT is review some trading courses and programs for you - as well as pass on some of what little I've learned about trading over the past 20 years or so.
It's easy money time, kids - you just need some vague idea of what you're doing. AND it's fun! Futures trading is like the world's greatest rollercoaster compared to the dull ferris wheel of stock trading.
So, Welcome Aboard Captain Jack's Mystery Train to the Town of "Stinkin' Rich"! Enjoy the ride, make boo-koo bucks, and buy some poor kids some food, huh?
Let's rock'n'roll....
JBM
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