Wow, you have no concept on what it takes to manage a good system. Try combining more than one system into your "super system" and all you'll get is 'stop orders galore'. Plus, your assumptions are all wrong. Glad that you posted that nonsense. We all can learn a lot from you. And also, I'm glad that you are related economics to this discussion - I'm sure that economists make the best traders.
Satyrican, While your basic premise that supply and demand determine value is true as an economic principle, you are leaving out the assumptions economists make to reach that conclusion, namely that the attributes of the product are well known and there is plenty of liquidity. Take your Mercedes example. They cost a lot because their value is well established in a liquid market place. People know they can resell their car for a good price and that the cars are reliable. This can not be said about the system vending industry. If normal economic rules applied to system vendors, then almost all systems should be free. I agree with FinStat that I have yet to see a commercial system be so consistently profitable that it merits an increase in value. In the VAST majority of cases, there is incompetence in the system development (i.e. curve fitting, unrealistic assumptions, etc.) at the very least, and in many cases, straight up fraud. Just take a look at the CFTC website and see how many regular advertisers in the major trading magazines have had rulings against them. The fact is that vendors rely on "perception of value" since there is imperfect knowlege of their systems to the public, and so they base pricing on basic human greed to allow them to charge prices that are not justified by the product. Just as acrary mentioned, if a system was truely good (assuming the idiot developer sells it instead of trading it) they would offer to sell it on the condition that a percentage of the realtime profits would be used to pay for it. That is the only fair way to do it, so why have I never seen a single system sold this way? (Hint: because there are no good ones for sale)
Point well taken, price is a good proxy for Value. Not a perfect estimator. Using price as a gauge, one has to question why system sellers are offering their systems at such ridiculous low prices.... Added to this, is the fact that traders/systems developers are pure capitalists. Why would a capitalist charge LESS than true value. Thus a consumer with an inkling of common sense would rule out and would not even give a second look at $39.99 systems (or $99.99). BUYER BEWARE. P.S. I really like Acary's idea, culling out all the bad lemons if you wil
Price and value are correlated when you lots of competing products for sale, lots of buyers and a good clearing mechanism. Now, that is if you believe in the efficient market hypothesis. Which I suspect most traders do not. When it comes to services there need not be any correlation. If you do not believe me, then I have 10 -10,000.00 trading systems to sell you, I have personal trading services and coaching to sell you at that same price. I will also coach you in tennis for 200 an hour, I will be your attorney for 700 and hour ( I use to do a some entertainment law in LA courts) and I can put you in touch with the highest priced service vendors in Rancho Santa Fe and La Jolla for a mere 10%. Am I worth it, actually yes, but how would you know and what about those clowns in rsf and la jolla.
What? Delete all of that great prose because I put my website address below the name? Jeeze, you guys are like bookburners. Throwing out the book because of one offending (and innoccuous, I might add) scene. Do I run a commercial service yes. Do I blow my own whistle? Not often. I think I've made some good, helpful and insightful posts. But no more weblinks. I tip my hat to the powers that be. Panther "If you want to stand in the rain, you have to put away your umbrella." -- Lord Tennyson
Great prose ... get off the bottle. That was the cheesy form of spam I have ever met. Adds nil/nada/zero/sh*t to the topic at hand.