Your forgot 2000-2002, what happened to those years? This is when Zanger got smashed. If someone received some GOOG stock at the IPO and just held at 2X leverage, would they be a great trader/investor based on these returns? This return would have beaten 99% of fund managers within the pst-IPO time window while most likely 99% of fund managers would have more talent than the GOOG holder. He himself states his trading approach only works well in a bull market. Zanger deserves credit for "good" work but he is not a Soros, Marcus, Tudor Jones, Kovner, Simons, Livermore, Rogers, Dennis, Henry, etc.
I disagree with your implication that a great trader shall be profitable in all markets. Although "great trader" is not a precise and objective quantifiable term, I think my personal view of what a great trader is is different from yours. Of course, that doesn't make me more correct than you. If a trader is able to profit handsomely in a bullmarket and being able to stay out of trading ranges/bear markets, I would say that's a great trader. I get the feeling that you think one should be able to make just as much money in a bear market as in a bull market, but in equities market conditions are much more important than say in forex or doing orderbook scalping to bring up two examples. As for your GOOG example, I don't think it's a good one. I guess what you mean is that someone who got GOOG in the IPO and is still holding on has just been lucky. But that's just one stock. If you repeatedly manage to catch big moves in stocks like GOOG (he mentioned TZOO and RIMM in one of the interview pdfs), and on average are profitable - then you're not just dumb money but have crossed over to be a profitable trader. As for Zanger, he seems to have a high enough frequency of trades to make it not just being lucky. But, Zanger is definitely interesting - I would like to thank you for starting the thread and making me aware of him. The strongest point to critisize on his webpage is the deeply flawed historical performance, which only includes top picks and not all trades and their outcomes. Also, as far as I can see you will have to enter and exit trades on your own - so I guess it's more a service of making people aware of potential movers than a detailed trade advisory service. And like you say, he's had some really serious drawdawns - which means he's still got issues to work on, and which means his trading style is (too!) risky. I read in one of the pdf's on his site about the day he was heavily margined into fiber stocks when Nortel Networks came with an after-the-bell profit warning. The next day, I think it was 32% his portfolio got hit. Market exposure like that just shouldn't happen.
You have to respect the guy for his hard work and tenacity and also for his ability to hold on to the money. The thing that bothers me is WHY the flashy high hype web site now? It's just not necessary in my opinion.
======= Even though it maybe a bit late,Zangeralso had a neat homebuilder leader chart pattern on ESIGNAL website; yes i prefer nicely stairstepping volume and there are opportunities when it doesnt. Also Mark Weinstein won that option trading contest -100k into 900k/3 months, with a conservative money manage flair; did NOT pyramid profits.
Htrader, If you are any good than with compounding 50 % a year, you also get your 30000 % in 15 years, that's why consistency is so important. My edge is already working 9 years in bull, bear and range markets consistently ( standard deviation less than 20 %) Trading for me is a challenge, a challenge to beat the market, now that I have to achieved that, I just want to improve my sharp ratio year after year. That finally it's all about the bucks comes probably from an American. Don't get me wrong, I have the fullest respect for Dan Zanger but I wouldn't call him consistent same goes for Larry Williams
Does anyone kow who the firm was that audited his results? "So far I've had the first twelve months of this incredible record audited by a firm that specializes in auditing professional money managers".
Who is this Firm "Effron" that audited his results? Why wouldn't he go with a reputable firm and audit all of his results not just the first 12 months? I'm just curious about this.
How can he know he has the world record ? Where all trading records from all people in the whole history audited ? The odds are good he has the world record but we can not be 100 % sure.