Gary Smith challange, any taker?

Discussion in 'Trading' started by manz66, Feb 1, 2004.

  1. I would like to confirm that Gary Smith went through the successful process in his book. There was a time in his life that he participated in misc.invest.futures and misc. invest .technical. It coincided with the periods before, during and after his book. His publisher is a well recognized publisher in the financial industry field.

    I believe he went for a long time before becoming successful.
     
    #41     Feb 1, 2004
  2. dbphoenix

    dbphoenix

    Incidentally, if anyone's interested, I'm selling his How I Trade For A Living for $15.
     
    #42     Feb 1, 2004
  3. As in any business venture, and even more so in trading for a living...the "vehicle" you choose to focus on can make all the difference in the world. We traded options on several exchange floors when they had a nice edge to be had...and then on to futures when the same edge applied. Things pretty much came full circle a few years ago, and the "surrogate specialist" (basic) strategy has been back in favorable territory for some time now.

    During January I traded options, futures, single stock futures, and still 90% equities. I do my best to keep up with all the instruments available. BT offers most vehicles, but we must have successful "bottom line" traders to continue our growth, and we find that goal is much easier in the equities markets.

    With profit margins so low on equities, no one can say that we encourage equity trading from a "price markup" vantage point, so I hope that what I says makes some sense to everyone. It's just so much simpler to trade listed stocks, do the openings, read the tape, watch the open book.....and use the futures and other vehicles as "leading indicators.

    Every few years, it seems, firms come out of the woodwork pushing all sorts of "new" instruments...most of which are geared towards the Firm's profits, not the traders. Remember when the retail brokers were actually pushing "day trading"? We spoke out against allowing (especially "encouraging") the average person at home from "day trading." '

    This is a serious business, and should be approached that way (I know, a "broken record" but true).

    Don
     
    #43     Feb 1, 2004
  4. Thanks for the IM....

    I just want to correct the mistake a couple of posts up....regarding my NYC traders who were "breaking even" and now making "triple" that (3 x breaking even = breaking even)..

    I know that they were making some money, a couple of grand or so, and now are doing much, much better...with some direction and encouragement.

    Thanks for pointing out my mistake...

    All the best...

    Don
     
    #44     Feb 1, 2004
  5. nitro

    nitro

    I have nothing to add.

    nitro
     
    #45     Feb 1, 2004
  6. The usual suspects seem to have done a fine job slamming Gary Smith, but its not surprising that no one who has posted to this thread has taken up Gary on his challenge...

    I doubt there is even one person on this entire board who has started with 25k in a futures account on Jan 00' and has made decent profits (50k or more per year) for the three straight years ending Dec 03'...
     
    #46     Feb 1, 2004
  7. Neil

    Neil

    The thing is that everyone is SO fond of making dramatic statements to support their own particular theories.. as in the above.. why do you exclude those happy people who trade those markets who merely make $5k per day? Thats not so bad is it? Maybe you know stuff of course.. like there are no traders in the $0 - $10,000 bracket? Or maybe they do not count... except that a gain is a gain as i was once told by a genie of the market.. a little known genie of course... lol
     
    #47     Feb 1, 2004
  8. nitro

    nitro

    You are missing the point. _EVEN_ if someone had done that, what would he have to do to claim his $500 - LOL.

    He would have to show statements to the effect? Would he have to show each trade?

    What would be gained from it?

    Raise the stakes to $25,000 if he is so sure that no one has done it, and see how many come out of the woodwork. Until then, it is a _joke_.

    nitro
     
    #48     Feb 1, 2004
  9. nitro

    nitro

    No one is excluding anybody. Read the whole post. I mention those that make $5K a day. The $5,000 a day traders were mentioned because I do not know anyone making less than that. Doesn't mean they don't exist or that taking $100 a day from trading stock index futures isn't a feat.

    But it does not matter. What matters is, if _you_ made say $1000 a day or $500 a day trading stock index futures, and someone offered you a $500 "prize" to show them your statements, would _you_ do it?

    Not only that, do you know that giving someone your statements can be interpreted as soliciting for funds? Do you know what the ramifications of that are by the CFTC if you do not have the proper registrations?


    nitro
     
    #49     Feb 1, 2004

  10. exactly. his low ball "bounty" clearly indicates he has zero faith in his own statement. what a joker !

    best,

    surfer:)
     
    #50     Feb 1, 2004