HA! Have you read his book? After reading his book (which was a good read) I learned he has zero emotional control, has little idea WHY he is in a stock, and is definitely in the business for excitement not for being a good trader. His returns were high when the mkt was bullish, then tanked when the mkt tanked. That, my friends, does not take much skill.
Creative or not they have still been consistently working. Bankruptcy chapter just worked on NWAC and DAL. Deletions chapter has been great. QQQ Crash chapter just triggered and worked. Etc. Its funny how people knock stuff they clearly haven't tried or looked at. - James Altucher
I think James' book had excellent ideas. Note that variables that can not be quantified easily are important, and an average mechanical system can be overridden/tweaked to become very profitable by a good discretionary trader.
But no, I have looked at your stuff, and I actually think you're a genius, James. I think you're genius for actually being able to sell crap to people and make money off of it. You did outsmart them. Kudos to you, man. Some stuff it seemed like you spent less than 5 minutes on WealthLab to think of and create and then another 10 minutes for optimization, and then you marketed the result to be some amazing method that hedge funds used and then you wrote a book about it which you suckered many people into buying. Now *that's* funny.
The problem is the returns, not the strategy. I have always operated under the pretense that in order to succeed as a trader you should at least beat the index. Many of the strategies in the book dont amount to a high return.
Heres an example of a trend following system I made myself. Couldn't figure out how Dunn did it using a Turtle system, so I did it myself.
Thanks! But you didnt' respond to my point that the systems are still consistently working. In the past 2-3 weeks the bankrupcty chapter and QQQ Crash chapter made people money. Not every chapter triggers every week. But taking the systems in there, using them as starting points, and trading from them has resulted in success, even recently.
You don't need to beat the index to succeed as a trader, in fact, as a trader, I am going after returns.....period. I take short term, highly leveraged trades with the goal of closing out at a profit. The only time I concern myself with beating an index is if I am going to be in the market for any period of time. For instance, One strategy I use, might be in the market for 6 months, and I do compare the results I get against the market to ensure I am getting the best ruturn on my capital. I found a few strategies of james that are profitable, and when they present themselves I go after them and make money. That is where trading is going, you will have to have a toolbox of strategies that you use when they are working, and when they stop, you drop it like a bad habit, until it starts working again. Good trading! Mike