Just got done reading Williams interview in Active trader mag and was aghast at his style (or methodology) to trade.Commodities only, technicals aren't a priority and distaste for people who say they can pick tops and bottoms. Any thoughts?
You will no doubt get a fair share of replies about how Larry Williams doesn't know squat. Yet I bet his bankroll is considerably larger than most everyone around here. When Larry first got going there were stocks and commodities. The max leverage for stocks was 2:1. For commodities it was much higher. So it isn't too difficult to see why he is in that arena. Commodities to Larry Williams are not centered around electronically-traded index futures. He takes positions with size in the real deal. And plays the long term seasonal trends, which are not influenced by short term daytrade junk. Yeah his books offer a lot of daytrade junk, but that is what the trading public wants. When you have a name that sells books, why not "give 'em what they want." Clearly I respect him and his accomplishments.
frankly, i am surprised at your support of larry williams. william gallacher in "winner take all" provides a very nice expose' of mr. williams and the fraud committed in his name. best, surf
Yes, he is a good one. Even his daytrading junk literature is not that bad. I have two of his books, one is of 'junk' kind, but not that bad. There are some good basic ideas about money management in this book which you rarely find in the books of this kind. His daughter won a Robbins Cup Championship just as he did years earlier which definitely shows that he can also teach his skills.
I'm personally on the other end of that spectrum. One of the big reasons is I have some friends who sat on the board during his trading contest that he loves to talk about he results of so much. They fined him $200,000 for talking about his great returns while his hedge fund took serious losses. He finally closed his hedge fund due to poor returns. Let's talk about a very basic marketing technicque. Make a recommendation to a whole bunch of people to go long A Than at the exact same time take the same # of people and recommend at the same time to short A You'll guaranteed to be right for half. Than those your were right on. Recommend E long to half and E short to half again right recommendation to half your list and so on and on eventually having a small list that feels you are a guru. Not sure if that was done as I don't have the time. But knowing his hedge fund took losses at the exact same time he won the constest hmmmmmm?? I see When you risk 30% on your portfolio on each trade you can have incredible results. Or you can go bankrupt rather fast. Than start up a side business of direct mailers targeting newbies into the commodities industry. For marketing I give him an A + but trading a C. There are some gems in his work --I'll give him that. But a big piece of trading comes down being o money management. Which Larry has proven to be heavily lack risking 30% per trade. Robert
Did his daughter also commit a fraud by winning the Robbins championship? How much validity should we put into what Gallacher says about him?
How do you know he still adheres to that? People change and we all make mistakes. The point is to learn from them. Yes, his fund was not a major success, to put it mildly, but judging by his books he knows now much more about money management than you give him credit for.
I don't do direct mailers to 1000's per day taking newbies money away. I personally like being able to look myself in the mirror and not feeling guilt but being proud of what I've done. I don't do a $5000 marketing seminar once per year where I promise I'll give the traders a % of the winnings (Which when you look at past results is just a % of what he made from the seminar) Than bet huge amounts of money on a few signals in a day. but I living life completely guilt free. Doubt Larry could say that. The best example is his students. Find me a few of his students who have incredible long term track records. When I find some of those, than I 'll change my mind.