Is anyone familiar with the work of Bill Williams of Profitunity Trading and his book Trading Chaos? I am curious as to what his work is about. Thanks
I've never read it but I'm interested in chaos theory and the application of fractals to the market. I'm reading the 28 page sample on Amazon right now, and all I can say is why does an author with a PHD have to use a term like "profitunity" to describe his analysis? Why the hell are so many trading books so heavily laden with cheesy, infomercial, BS, motivational speaker like terminology?? I hate this about the trading industry...anyway... i believe the underlying idea of fractal geometry has merit in financial applications. I just finished the sample pages....fluff...
I have his analysis on metastock 8.00 professional. It has so many variables and is far to complex to be of any use.
Many of the chaos books are written by non-mathematicians who do not have a good understanding of chaos theory. The book by Sornette, Why Stock Markets Crash relates a number of mathematical principles (game theory, chaos theory) to the stock market in an academically solid way.
It's not just the trading industry. I grew up in the art world. Artists talk about their art in a manner other artists call, "artspeak", which basically means "BS". And that's what's at play here. It's the presentation of something (whether what it presents is the next big thing or not) by transforming it through words to more than it is. It seeks to complicate the understanding of the material just enough so that, as in the 'Emperor's New Clothes', you're meant to feel a bit humbled and stupid if you don't get it straightaway, thereby assuring that the material will be regarded as a feat of intellectual superiority owing to the human tendency that 'nothing worthwhile can actually be simple'. This also serves as an incentive to acquire the material, as it is playing 'hard to get', and therefore seems more worthwhile. It's also serves the purpose of its author, in establishing their status, through language, as that of above the audience. It uses phrases such as "preclude elucidation" to preclude elucidation!
Oh, for the same reason Jack uses science terms that can easily be replaced with words everyone can understand... I leave this to you to understand why.
gms agree totally. i'm an artist too, i just step between my music cockpit and my trading cockpit 24/7 it seems. there's nothing more annoying than pretentious artspeak.......when artists try to legitimize their droppings (however ingenius) via esoteric nearly meaningless language. but this shit - "profitunity" - doesn't even sound like intentionally overblown rhetoric to me, it just sounds like an incredibly retarded ... malapropism... lol... to rope in suckers. god help the shitpile of trading books we regretfully have to sift through. I think ET should have a once and for all mega poll, scurtinizing and ranking every trading book out there. Or maybe a trader book-swap service.
I had the book, it is nothing more than a moving average trend following system. The only time this system works is if the market moves after a long inactivity. I would not buy the book, but borrow it from the library instead and save the money. If you like the book, you can always buy it later.