I think his indicators have value all right, but why is he selling so hard and dissing everything else. Is he having trouble selling his services these days?
Poor surf. DeMark was annoying enough when he named every little two-bit kludge indicator he ever experimented with after himself. Now he declares himself a psychic ("I can pick tops and bottoms") and you fall for it like a ton of bricks. Dude, get a clue. You've got about as much chance of discrediting trend following as you do of finding anything resembling science in "The New Science of Technical Analysis" by T. DeMark.
OK..then I will ask the investors who were with JWH in the 80's and 90's when they had insane returns how they felt. You can dissect and take look at a 3 year bad period of a lot of funds and imply they suck. It's all relative surf. Sure trend followers had a rough stretch. Part of trading. EVERY trader goes through it. Now they are at the top of the list. It's funny how you rip on guys like Dunn and Henry, but praise the likes of a simpleton-like one trick pony like Neiderhoffer who has one method of trading which always results in a disaster. Over the years I have worked with and have had contact with fund managers and traders who dealt with VN professionally. They all said the same thing about him. He is a legend in his own mind who when you really get down to it, while a very smart person, is a horrible trader who used a very simple method used by many, but unlike others who had risk mgmt skills, didnt and lost everything in his fund.
I am not familiar with Demark and didnt know he wasnt a trader , but someone who just sold his indicators to Bloomberg. It's kind of funny hearing a guy who doesnt have the stones to trade rip on legends like Dunn and JWH. Take whatever Surf says with a grain of salt. Like Demark he isnt a trader, but plays one on here. I think he is mad because he has been bearish gold during an EASY up trend, and while others are cleaning up, his little counter trend proclamation is blowing up in his face.
Surf, since you don't trade why do you post so much on a trading message board? You seem quite attached to your views on what trading methods are valid; what makes you think you're in any kind of position to pass judgment on any trader?
I agree completely. Very annoying. DeMark this, DeMark that, DeMarker, etc. I actually bought his "new science" book in the mid '90s when it came out. After reading a bit of it, I just wanted to tell him to kiss my DeMark.
This thread is nonsense. I suspect that all successful traders are trend traders of sorts, in that they either catch a trend very early on or further along the way. Such trends need not be of a specific time frame that applies to all traders (as marketsurfer seems to believe), and one trader's trend may well be another trader's countertrend. The matter of drawdowns as a defining characteristic has more to do with timing proficiency and (loose or tight) money management. People who habitually ignore trends of any time frame from time to time are people such as, say, marketsurfer's Mr. Niederhoffer...
It's always easy to yell and critique from the cheap seats. It's much different when you are on the field and have to actually play the game. Surf has had season tickets in the nose bleed seats since I have been on here.
I have never thought highly of this DeMark fellow after reading one of his books. Well, it's good to know I was not so wrong in my opinion. There is more than one way to skin the cat. One would think he would know about it.