I challenge Dan Zanger with Takashi Kotegawa (B.N.F.): He has increased his own fund from 1.6 million yen ($13,600) to 18 billion yen ($153 million) in about 8 years. http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=4644
the statement that Dan does not short is not correct at all. it's true that he did not short in bull market much. his style reminds me another trader, Harry Boxer, at least a little bit. both of them like channels inside channels, use similar patterns and respect the dynamic volume. personally, i'm more interested in the futures, not stocks. some patterns are different and more tricky in futures, but it depends. at least, there are some nuances. anyways, losses are the integral part of the game. everybody of them had losses, drawdowns, etc. the key is psychology, IMHO you can get all secret info, methods, the most detailed tricks etc, but it requires a lot of balls sometimes to follow them for real. one example, to take profits too soon.
Active Trader Magazine - August 2004 Dan Zanger's sink-or-swim trading http://www.chartpattern.com/cf/images/new/articles/active-trader-article.pdf
Being able to time beta, is alpha. If Zanger was pure beta then he would not outperform over a market cycle. He would lose back during bears, what he makes during bulls. Consistency is not the main variable in judging trader performance. Risk-adjusted returns are. If he can make enough money in up markets, and preserve capital reasonably in down or flat markets, to give a high risk-adjusted % return over time, then he is pretty much as good as someone who makes a similar risk-adjusted % return by profiting in all market environments.
i believe the biggest achievement done by Zanger that he redefined the very definition of "dumb blond" glad for me, too