Seriously, I'm not sure how many times it's been said, but why would anyone either give away or even sell a system that works. Everyone wants the free lunch. Work for it like the rest of us.
Some people believe that others using their systems will not affect the function of their logic. Others don't want competition for their inefficiency edges. Ignoring the 99% of systems that DON'T work, and focusing on the few that DO work: there are several reasons they might sell trading signals: 1) trading revenue is a somewhat reliable income source, and can help the signal provider through their OWN personal drawdowns that every system has. 2) some traders like to teach or help others 3) a trader with a successful system might be starting with a small account, and subscription revenue will help them build their own trading account up But I agree, its unlikely a newbie will stumble over the rare system that WORKS, and they are better served learning to trade for themselves.
There is such market but transactiona are illegal because the seller in most cases is a programmer of the system who has signed a non-disclosure agreement and he or she is not satisfied with the percentage of the profits offered from the legal owner of the system. If you are not an insider it is easy to fall victim of scam artists who pose as programmers of such system. You must offer a percentage of the profits in exchange, not a fee for the program. Also, there are some grey boxes out there that can find tons of trading systems in a matter of a few minutes but many traders are not aware of their existence and the ones who use them are not willing to talk about them for obvious reasons: (1) Tradecision (moderate cost but quite general with many features and capabilities) (2) Automatic Pattern Search (low cost but limited to price patterns. Very powerful search engine) (3) Trading System Lab (expensive but based on novel concept) (2) and (3) above have the capability of generating native language code for platforms like Tradestation. Very useful feature. I think that if a system or number of systems exist that can make money consistently, the above programs should be able to find it without you doing any major work. Alex
Consider this, a fully automated daytrading system that has averaged 2.57% per month for the past five years. If my math is correct, that works out to about 35% per year with compounding. It wouldn't make you fabulously rich, but it could pay the bills. The trader isn't interested in selling it, but he was playing a mind game one day to see how much he could sell it for and what he would do with the money. If he sold the system, he wouldn't have to get up early every morning and take all the crap the market dishes out. Maybe it would be better to take the money, buy high-quality bonds, and go lie on a beach somewhere. How much would you sell it for?
nice post, I agree with you Ive been trading since 1992 looking to leave this business permanently.looking to sell what I have and know. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=135120
Well, in my case, the trader is just some old geezer I met in a bar. The numbers are real though. After I bought a couple rounds to loosen his tongue, he showed me his statements...
I have #2, I'm getting #1 soon but I woudl love to try #3 for just a week to get a feel of genetic programming at work.