This is about 8 years ago. He had a room then, and offered to trade members money... what can I say... made it back in the meantime. Expensive lesson.
His strategy does raise an eyebrow but he takes a quick partial at a couple of ticks and then moves the stop up aggressively. When he takes his 2nd partial he goes up to b/e and considers the third runner a free trade - which it is - but it raises the obvious question.....what if he never gets the opportunity to take a partial or two? It seems he's accepting more risk for less profit.
I would never take that bet, and few prudent traders would. There are enough bets that have 2/1, and not 1/2, risk-reward out there, if one is patient to wait. 1/2 bets are a dime a dozen. Actually, a 10 reward/ 20 stop works out more like an 8 reward/22 stop, once commissions and the spread are taken into account (rather, taken OUT of the account!).
A while back I was on an email list that was getting the daily results from a managed account program he was promoting. I've never seen anyone lose as much money as he did as quickly and consistently as he did. It was mind boggling. Needless to say I did not sign up for the program.
Was he disclosing losses? What was te percentage? Why is his book then endorsed by some good traders?
Thanks for the information ... now we can see where Puretick got their ideas from. ... and on that note.
Thanks for confirming Vienna's story. Oh, I believed (um, not sure whether you're a him or a her Vienna, your name is knda neutral, and I don't want to assume), but the OP seeemed to have his doubts. Let's just say, it's easy to believe in people before you get into this game, and hard to believe in them after you've been around the block a few times.
Here are the facts. John is a lousy trader, but a very good teacher and a consumate marketeer. His sidekick, Hubert, is an above average trader, which is to say he is profitable, a good teacher and a lousy marketeer. John and Hubert are a good team. The unfortunate thing, however, is John's methods will not give you an edge over the professionals who trade. So, for your mentoring dollars, you get two very good teachers and course material that won't consistently win in the markets. Not unlike Traders International or other trading universities. With respect to Alex at PureTick, he was trained by Carter and Linda Raschke and well schooled by them. He took the best of both worlds and tweaked their systems to become what is now PureTick. Before paying Alex big bucks as a mentor, try his room for a couple of months and see if it suites you. You might be able to learn his techniques for a lot less than private tutoring. Good luck.
I bought his book because Peter Borish wrote foreword. I actually liked it a lot even though found only few new things. It is a great book for someone who starts in trading to read. Can save them thousands in various trading courses.