Looking for a successful trader

Discussion in 'Trading' started by sappjason, Mar 19, 2010.

  1. Here's my situation. I am a profitable trader. I've been at this for more than 10 years, but have only been consistently profitable since 2008. I'm also a professional software engineer and as such, I managed to fully automate my entire strategy. I'm currently trading with about $230K and in 2008, made 52% and in 2009 made 63% return. My current system trades an average of 13 trades per day and is in cash every single night. It trades exclusively US equities. It's not the end-all to end-alls, but it works and I'm pretty darned proud of my accomplishment.

    With that said, I've been looking for another profitable methodology now for about 1 year, but so far no luck. I would like to automate as many profitable strategies as possible, to ultimately smooth out my equity curve and help me to do this stuff on a full-time basis (more quickly). I've been reading, back-testing ideas and just plain-old hunting high and low.

    What I'm trying to find out is if there is anybody out there (that is already a profitable trader) who is not afraid to share their methodology with me (to teach me how to trade another method profitably)? What would you get in return? Well, I'm open... Perhaps I can pay (say 20%) of my profits for the first year using their methodology (say on a $100K account). Perhaps I can give my code to said person, once the strategy has been fully automated. You can throw other ideas at me if you are interested.....

    Just for your information, I've attached a chart of my real-money trading since I started to become consistently profitable (back in the beginning of 2008).

    If you are truly interested in this proposal, I'm willing to provide brokerage statements to back up my above claims (with individual trades removed). Please feel free to PM me if you want to chat.

    Jason
     
  2. Jason, I am sorry to disappoint you, but there is only ONE system that works. You obviously found it too. So there is no point in seeking another one. You'll just have to limp along compounding your quarter mil account at 50% per annum. Life's a bitch, but eventually with that kind of compounding, you own the world. If I don't beat you to it. If so, I'll sell you some of it that I don't need. There's plenty of places where there aren't any women or clubs that I can part with.
     
  3. What does your being profitable have to do with your request? You're a developer looking for someone else's successful strategy.

    There is absolutely 0 reason someone with a profitable method will want you to code it. He'd rather hire a code-monkey.
     
  4. Hey Art,
    Once again, I love your style. My system certainly has it's downsides in that it's not scalable. In fact, I'm already hitting scalability limits. I'm not sure what account size I need to hit before my percentage returns diminish to the point where it no longer makes sense to run my it on my full equity. But I'm guessing it's going to be somewhere in between $1 million to $5 million. Just not sure where.
    I'm also (of course) worried about the financial transaction tax, because if enacted, my system becomes worthless overnight.

    Jason



     
  5. Oh, sorry, you DIDN'T find my system. Basically you are saying yours isn't robust, because it occurs only 13 times a day across the entire universe of trading verhicles. If I were you I would plow every penny I could beg borrow or steal into it right now while it is still randomly working. Then, you can ponder the fact that every day, almost every issue goes up or goes down in the morning. Then it bottoms out in the late morning or early afternoon, maybe reversing. What could be simpler to find? Then you won't have any scalability issues. You will be one with the market, memsahib. Aaaaaauuuuuummmmmmm.

    OK, I'll give you a hint: trading index futures, there are at least 13 times a day where tradeable reversals occur. Jack says so. And a man older than me surely would not lie. Look at ES any day of the week. See them? Easy to predict them.
     
  6. I bring a couple things to the table....

    #1) I know what it takes (psychologically) to be profitable. So, I do make a good student. I'm someone that will not bail. So, if (and I'm not sure if this is even possible) I can make someone else money trading their strategy on a different market than what they are trading, then I already know what it takes psychologically and I'm willing to pay you.

    #2) Hiring a code monkey DOES NOT get you a fully automated intra-day trading system (if that's in fact what you want). I repeat. IT DOES NOT!!!! Dealing with the intricacies of a fully automated intra-day ATS is mind-boggling. I run a co-located server using external data-feeds. I have dealt with and come up with solutions for disconnect problems, partial fills, bad brokerage/portfolio information, bad market data, etc, etc, etc.... The list goes on and on and on. Now, my system is not a high speed scalping system, but rather a momentum based intra-day position trading system. So, I have not dealt with what it takes to create an ultra-high frequency automated system. This would be several calibers above my head.....

    Jason

     
  7. Wow! That is some heavy shit infrastructure! Sorry I posted. Please ask the moderators to delete my posts, lest they scare away a potential partner. That sure beats the shit out of "Oh, fuck! There's the bottom! Where'd that "buy" key go to? Did the wife move it again?"
     
  8. Actually it does and there are a number of programmers who code specifically for traders. There are prop firms that actually cater to traders who want to automate their strategies and will assist them, for a fee or a much better split than what you're offering.

    If you want to code for others, then code for others. You actually want someone to share their edge with you.
     
  9. Kindly do not denigerate code monkeys. I am one myself. And I have found many a profitable system revealed by fat-fingered hasty coding errors that I would never have found reasoning logically.
     
  10. OK. I did not realize that there were prop firms out there that specialize in doing this. I guess what I'm trying to understand if there are true edges out there that people are actually willing to sell. I'm not asking for someone to give away their edge. I'm willing to pay for it in whatever way can be negotiated.

    But this does bring up a good question.... I'm not willing to share the intricacies of what my system does, because I realize that if you traded at exactly the same time as me, then you will eat into my salary.

    Are there edges out there that one can exploit where it does not eat into another persons profit? In other words, if you shared your edge with me, would that mean that I would be entering/exiting your current vehicles at the exact same time and as such, eat away at what you are taking home?

    Jason


     
    #10     Mar 19, 2010