I know I will get something out of going to the expo, 3 free seminars on Fri and as many free t-shirts I can snag. I was inquiring about the Friday night keynote address speech at the cybertrader reception. Does anybody know who the speaker is?
RTharp is definitely right about there being available value at the Expo. My smartass remark was only in referrence to the keynote address, the value of which was being questioned. I went to a couple of these at other expos and am just tired of sitting through canned advertisements. I am expecially cynical now that I have gone through my first year learning process to find that most of what those folks tell beginners is what is what's best for THEM rather than what is best for the beginners. JB
Wish I could attend but I will be in Yosemite this weekend. Hopefully I can go to the next CA <i>[or I would make an exception for Vegas ]</i> expo though to meet some of you guys.
I am going to have Richard Rueb (President of DaytradersUSA) introduce me to a few different people. I'd like to eventually be one of the speakers. Put the word out you would like to hear Robert Tharp speak about his trading and what works in the market. Rtharp
So, how was it? While trying to sleep in my paper-thin tent thinking that every sound outside was a bear, I thought to myself that I would much rather be at the expo.
Well I made a few contacts seems quite a few guys there knew me. Can't say I walked away with 1000's of ideas but worth my time. Baron , Turok? What happened to callimg me? rtharp
Best Expo Description Award. From the DF thread at SI: By: KymarFye Sunday, Aug 19, 2001 1:37 PM Online Trading Expo Notes: ...commute between LA and Anaheim via the 5 has become virtually intolerable - used to be 45 mins on wknds, now twice that even on weekends - up to 2 hours if there's a Dodger game anywhere near "Play ball!"- seemingly endless agonizing stop and go, with a bit of go-hard then sudden stop and crawl, through SoCal's most direly unappealing scenery - add the sudden, late disappearance of my dog-sitter, and my attendance had to be somewhat curtailed... can't bring myself to try again today... ...as throughout the Internet-related world, the Expo has undergone a precipitous FREEBIES CRASH - very few t-shirts, caps, pens, mouse pads, mugs, or keyrings being handed out. AmeriTrade now asks you to open an account if you want their t-shirt! ("I bought a ton of CMGI at 150, and all I got was this lousy...") I ended up with ONE little flashlight-keyring from a futures trading firm, but I already have a mini-Mag for the purpose, and took the item only because the exhibitor seemed like a nice guy and sweating so profusely in his suit, amidst the overstressed air conditioning... ... Neither Bollinger, who's written a new book about his Bands, nor his associate had read or were even aware of the section in MASTER SWING TRADER where Alan so insightfully describes being an amazed novice first examining Bollinger Bands, marvelling at their seeming magic - an experience that I think many of us shared with one or another TA method upon first sight. They seemed slightly amused by my description, but B had to run off to Metastock and reel off candlestick+band buys and sells on projected charts of stocks (tech stocks, of course) shouted out from among a wowed-looking capacity audience - just plug sticks, bands, and four-letter tickers into Metastock, and trading could be so easy! ... trading is virtually impossible according to Don Bright of Bright Trading: he claims that his firm and his methods produce 70% traders who are profitable after their first years, but that only "2%" of retail traders trade profitably - a figure he quickly amends to "5%" supposedly in deference to lawyers and their advice... with a wave of his hand, he dismisses all of the other exhibitors, and asserts that most will be gone by next year... I'd intended to visit his tutorial, but instead satisfied myself with a few snippets from his booth-side presentation... there's some truth in what he has to say, I think, but he appears no more nor less immune to tunnel vision, tactical exaggeration, and hype than the people he attacks... seems everyone - system seller, futures broker, on-line broker, celebrity trader, proprietary spoilsport, TA zealot with profuse nostril hair - roots for his or her home team, in the trading world as anywhere else... ...attendance in general did not seem poor at all - not a crushing mob, but most of the seats at exhibitor presentations seemed filled, and most of the booths appeared to be busy... other observers who've attended numerous expos over the years past will be better able to compare throng to throng... ...marketing award goes to The World's Greatest Trader Ever or whatever he called himself - who stationed a stunning young blonde in front of his booth... on second thought, maybe too obvious a tactic, considering the typical profile of active traders - male and definitionally lonely - caddy-corner to his booth was TradersLibrary, prominently featuring a new book on divorce ... and another thing, if day-traders were more successful, on average, wouldn't on-line trading expos be besieged by eligible and enthusiastic single women? I consider the lack of same to be the strongest, most objective support for Bright's thesis... ...I stood between the blonde and the divorce book, doing such pointless math (I'm not married), waiting for my own latest trading book purchases to close, by chance standing face to face with Greg Capra of Pristine - dashing, but overcast by a pre-performance blankness, preparing to sign copies of his and Velez's new book, whose title, "Tools and Tactics for the MASTER DAY TRADER" looks to me like a calculated attempt to ride Alan's coattails - BWDIK... Pristine seems to be pushing hard its emulate-a-winner theory which would, of course, justify their expensive mentoring program. If it's good enough for Zen Buddhists, it should be good enough for traders, I guess, and, if wearing a slick suit and a flashy watch would help my p/l, I'd go for it, but I look terrible with a thin mustache. There are, indeed, some sacrifices I'm just not willing to make for trading success. ...the only tutorial I got to was Linda Bradford Raschke's, delivered to a near-capacity audience in a large hall - I'd estimate one to two thousand in attendance, as a turnout almost as impressive as her own winning combination of disarming self-consciousness with long experience and sterling reputation. Wearing a jet-black lapel-less pantsuit over a frilly scarlet collarless chemise, she stood around fielding questions from an age- and ethnicity-diverse circle of earnest students, fans, associates, and groupies (among which latter I'll proudly include myself) for over an hour - and the strongest impression I'll take home from the conference is of her intensely, piercingly translucent, mesmerizingly beautiful gray-blue eyes, which offer a powerful contrast to her friendly, personable attitude and mom-at-the-office self-humor. She has the kind of gaze that seems capable of moving the market all by itself. For all I know, the look was the result of jet-lag and/or tinted contacts. All the same, if I were a soybean contract and fell before her assassin's black pupils, I'd roll over and yield immediately.
Looks like I missed an Expo highlight ... Robert, next time you see me, can you please introduce yourself to me? I'd love that. Thanks