Why does each portfolio have 2 versions?
Why does each portfolio have 2 versions?
Each version uses the same systems but reflects a different amount of slippage added into the programs. The files ending with 25 factor in $25 round turn slippage per contract plus $10 for commission. While the file ending in 50 factors in $50 round turn slippage per contract plus $10 for commission. I feel it is important to show both portfolios since we have seen over time that slippage tends to be between 1 tick to 2 ticks per side depending on market conditions. I strongly recommend that when you review anyone else's hypothetical performances that you also ask they include 2 ticks per side per contract as well for an equal comparison of what you might receive during live trading.
Yes there are and we are happy to service larger accounts. The three portfolios that we list represent the basics in what we offer. Larger portfolios will just be a multiple of our $50k portfolio to fit their account size.
What if I want to use more leverage to increase my possible returns?
Yes you can, but this is not recommended. You stand a larger chance of suffering a deeper draw-down that will force you emotionally and financially to trade a smaller position which will take much longer to recover from. I strongly encourage you to start out with no leverage and wait to have profits to leverage with.
Do you trade on FOMC days?
No we do not. We also do not trade during triple witching period, which is expiration of stock options, futures options and futures contracts all at the same time. As our testing shows that this is a non directional market for our trading methods.
Is it possible to view the tradelist of your portfolios?
This is not something I feel comfortable offering. My experience has taught me that people that want to pick apart the information in this much detail can end up giving themselves analysis paralysis.
Do your performance metrics include monthly fees?
No they don't currently at this time.
How do I subscribe?
Since we do all of our subscriptions on a calendar quarterly basis we do not provide actual subscribe links. Please click here to go to our
request subscription page. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.
Why should i invest in your systems when other systems show higher returns?
That is a great question. First confirm that their results include slippage and commission that we include in our reports. This can make a huge difference in not just the return, but more importantly the draw-down of the service in question. In my opinion the aspect of draw-down is the most important feature of any service as it can greatly affect your compounding.
Second make sure to include the monthly fee for both my services and the other service. If the other service still shows a higher return with what you feel is still suitable draw-down then you should have a more clear cut decision.
What markets do you trade?
I focus on the e-mini S&P for the liquidity and acceptable volatility. In the past we have offered the Russell, MidCap, Dow, Dax, Stoxx and Nikkei. We still support these systems and have reached the max liquidity we can offer at this time.
What type of orders do you use for your systems?
All our entries are market orders, exits at the end of day are also market orders. And of course stop loss orders are used for every position and contract. I do not use limit orders or targets.
What software do you run and test your systems in?
All of my systems are built, run and were tested in the Tradestation platform.
Can I recieve copies of your system files/code to run on my personal computer?
No, while I am happy to share my signals through automated execution, I am not willing to send out my code to anyone for any reason.
Why report hypothetical performance?
The process to report live audited performance is almost impossible because we do not have Power of Attorney on our clients accounts. We also have no way to ensure that clients to not personalize the results by deciding to try and hedge our positions, have margin calls from aggressive funding, platform issues, interjecting their own trading over ours. I agree that a live performance track record would be great, and if that is something really important then I would recommend researching CTA's that allow for notional funding. You will end up paying more in fees then you would through us, but that is part of the cost of maintaining a live track record.
How do you calculate draw-down?
The standard way of measuring draw-down is the depth of continuous losses measured in dollars or percentage of equity/profits lost. Meaning that if we now or historically made $5k then gradually lost $2k and finally made another $3k, our profit would be $6k and the draw-down over this time would have been $2k. The $2k divided by starting account balance would be how we calculate draw-down. Clients can also calculate it based on their current equity which depending on their funding level could be more or less.
Please note that we have and will have draw-downs over $2k per system. In my opinion draw-downs do not indicate that a system(s) have broken or that their time has passed depending on market conditions.
What is your refund policy?
We do not offer refunds, your subscription is a paid in advance subscription. We charge in advance and allow access to our services for the term agreed upon. It is at your discretion and choice whether you would like to take advantage of our services.
Please keep this in mind before you subscribe. We purposely only offer quarterly subscriptions to ensure that clients give me what I feel is the time needed to possibly generate profits under most market conditions.
Do your systems automatically scale/compound position size based on my equity?
Unfortunately no, we do not have control or access of everyone's account individually to be able to do this. If we possibly could we would have to charge higher fees just because of the sheer man power and time it would take to double check everyone's position sizes in relation to available equity.
What features do you incorporate into your systems to protect the principal, maximize gains and minimize losses?
This is a great question and one that I wish I could do more for. The first thing to understand is that how aggressive/leveraged you are or aren't has the greatest impact on your long term survival as a client and as an investor/trader.
That being said, all of my systems jump into each position with an initial $500 risk per contract, then depending on the recent range, relation to the previous days high and low and the movement of the current trade we will work several trailing stops to first reduce risk. Should the market be a tight market, these stops, based on range, will be tighter. If the market is more volatile then our stops will be wider to give the trade room to breathe.
I found out long ago that trying to use a tight trailing stop caused me to be whipped out of trade, some big trades too, with small profits and small losses on top of trades where we would take a loss to begin with. But by changing my approach from trying to aggressively protect profits to slowly reducing risk my results improved greatly.
How often do you optimize your systems?
I try to refrain from optimizing my systems at all. Although I am very aggressive about testing various versions, tracking different versions and always trying to make a better mouse trap. I would say that we make changes or adaptations about once a year or less on average. One thing that has not been changed is the actual parameter values, these have been the same for many many years. Generally I will look to add a filter such as not trading during roll over or fomc days instead of taking the chance that I might over fit a parameter value.
Do you offer a free trial?
No I do not. I don't feel that free trials help anyone make the right decision. It somehow forces a person's perception into focusing on only the current free trial's performance and not keeping the years of historical tracking in mind, which I find very short sighted because 2 weeks a track record does not make.
Why should I trust your systems with my hard earned investment capital?
Another fantastic question. I honestly don't think you should trust anyone with your capital. You should always be scrutinizing your investment, looking for others/better to diversify into. And if it is hard earned you shouldn't over leverage it. I have never seen over leveraging work out well in the long term. You should be asking questions and if you don't get the answers you want or aren't happy with the answers you receive then don't invest. If you still go forward start with a small amount of capital and give it an incubation period of 6 months or longer before using more of your investment capital.
We have had many clients that start out trading multiple systems/portfolios from different vendors and different trading vehicles ( forex, options, stocks, mutual funds, etf) and eventually scale down to only a few of their original options, us being a main ingredient of their portfolio.
If your systems work then why share them with the public?
I'm not doing this to help the world, I love to exchange ideas about the market, but I more or less would prefer to listen then actually teach. I started this because a friend of mine in the business told me that my systems out performed many of the public systems out there. So I gave it a whirl and found out some surprisingly interesting things about myself, people and my systems.
1. Only trading is very boring, yet very time consuming. I don't like to step away from my computer for more then 15 minutes at a time during market hours. I also can't think about much else then watching the market like a trained chimp.
2. I started out trading the ES and with it's liquidity I feel I can offer my services to hundreds of people and not affectively move the market or restrict my own trading size.
3. The money. I encourage everyone to create multiple streams of income. This is one that comes very easy to me because I like trading and most things involving trading. If something else can let me leave money in my trading account to compound or offset draw-down periods I am all over it.
4. Thanks to some great brokerages I have met I have made great strides in the development of my systems. Completely changing the way I look at systems, performance, risk and commitment.
5. Thanks to the pressure of trading for others I have made even better assessments of what it takes to be a successful trader, not just for myself but for other. There have been a lot of tough decisions, but thinking what would be better for my clients makes it easier.