Don, From uptik2000: I'm still waiting...maybe I missed something but he basically said that they trade pairs, opens, and some other stuff...how is that a help to anybody? Hey guess what, I trade breakouts. Does that help? Didn't think so. From Cdntrader: Don's just giving you a taste. you gotta sign on the dotted line for the "special sauce" receipe...Curiously I wonder what he wanted to discuss on here with regards to strategies if he didn't intend to share any? From WarEagle: I wish the answers were as "Bright" as the strategies. Nevermind...I give up... From jsmith: How can you start a thread to trade ideas? And then say you can't trade ideas just because it wouldn't be fair to your traders. From AAAintheBeltway: The thread(s) should be renamed Bright self-promotion. I'll summarize for those who haven't read the whole 9 yards: Bright traders make an absolute mint and pay incredibly low expenses, using the very best software and systems. They have secret strategies that involve buying low and selling high and also profiting from divergences in closely related stocks. It is one big happy family and they share all strategies with each other, but it would be inappropriate to reveal anything to the outside world. From macal425: Can you please explain what you mean by 'real' traders...The only traders that I don't respect are the ones who show disrespect to others...Please give myself and others the respect that we deserve and perhaps your firm may get the respect that it deserves. From Turok: Then don't start a thread on a public forum with a title which says that this is precisely what you desire to do. Simply put, the level of frustration with your approach by quite a few folks on this board is palpable. Of course there are some who are happy with any crumbs you drop. But like macal425 I've seen the Bright Bros. sales promotion at a trading expo, so I also have suspicions as to true motive. And, frankly, I wouldn't mind it if you came clean and said something like, "Yes, we are looking for traders to join our company, we think we're the best, and in exchange for allowing me to make my pitch here I'm going to offer, with details, a couple of the trading strategies employed at our firm." Honest, simple, to the point.
What's it matter if he gives us a few bits of information? The fact that a particular type of trade supposedly works for his traders does not mean it will work for any number of us. I think in letting us in on the specifics of a trade he does little if any harm to his traders and little if any good to us. How often have you read about a great type of trade but it just doesn't seem to be the right thing for you? That is my experience anyway. One thing for sure I am not curious enough about whatever he was alluding to to run out and pay for a seminar he puts on. Good trading to all including Don Bright. ~EC
"Enough crumb begging " I agree. I'm in the process of checking out strategy #245388 from my books. Ain't got time for any more.
I thought I would never be defending Bright. I visited a Bright office one day. The office manager thought he was the absolute shit because he traded 200K shares a day and his firm only traded listed stock. It pissed me off. No other prop firm had this attitude. But back to my original point. There are a lot of readers on this board. Many work at prop firms. Worldco, Lieber and Weismann, Echotrade etc... They read this stuff and if Don Bright gives anything away, then he might put his traders' profitablity at risk. So it's in his best interest to charge a couple thousand for the seminars. And if I were a bright trader, I would want as much secrecy as possible about all trading strategies (even their names). It is "proprietary" trading isn't it? This whole thread just seems like an elaborate strip tease: the more you give, the more you get.
Each time I get back to this board it seems that someone is still confused about a few things. I think I offered some useful information about strategies, and I have gone into detail with several who have sent me personal emails (and, yes, even inquiries from traders with other firms). When the negative posts get "re-posted" over and over, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that some of you have some sort of an agenda regarding my firm. I have taken several of the questions (personal from board members) and sent them off to both magazines for the Q&A column, where I can share my answers with everyone. Regarding the Bright Manager who "pissed you off"..well, some of them piss me off too! We do our best to give our managers a free rein in their respective offices, but we try to keep our best face to the public whenever possible. Everyone has a bad day from time to time, and I apologize for any errant behavior. Regarding our expo presentations...I really think there must be some real confusion here. We offer simple facts, not outrageous claims about software, charts, "systems", and all that malarkey that is being spouted by the "usual suspects" selling videos, books, and all rest of the nonsense that the masses consume like the elixars of olden days. I usually ask the charlatans to show me their trades from the prior week, and usually get a response like " well, I don't actually trade myself" ...well that pretty much sums them up. As far as "showing disrespect" to traders, and the use of "real traders" - please understand that I am simply making a distinction, not a judgement. You must realize that I get 100 phone calls per week from all sorts of traders, and those who want to be. I spend a lot of time with these people, and I just want to have a feel for where they are in the "trader food chain" so as to speak to them directly. My brother and I have set up internship programs in several major Universities, offering many students free training and no cash entry into the firm. We teach 24 hours a month at the local Community College to help educate the general public about the realities of the markets (this is hardly an agenda, these people for the most part don't have any intentin of trading for a living). This is done with compassion and understanding, and we have received nothing but praise for doing this. I do want to take this time to say a few "thank you's" to many of you, even the "negative" guys. Your input, along with the actions of some other firms out there, has really helped us in our business strategies. The firms that lose focus on their traders and their traders profitability and start to focus on themselves will have a rude awakening in my opinion. We have grown to where we are by listening to our people, analyzing market conditions, and being frightfully fair to everyone involved. So, again, thanks for all the good input. Read the next post for a more detailed explanation of simple strategy.
From a personal inquiry: My response to a question about pairs trading: Our more successful traders tend to trade in and out of their pairs on an intraday basis, and post both an "average" price of their open positions, and a "last" price. i.e. buy aol/sell via.b for 5.88, 6.13, 6.80 for an average of 6.27 (my trades from either Thurs or Fri., Friday I believe...."spent so much time on the darn elite trader that I forgot, sorry). Now I "closed" the 6.80 at 6.10, leaving 2 positions on...then I re-opened at 6.60 taking a profit and then recalculating the average. I then closed one trade at 5.90 and the other two (too early in hindsight) at 5.30 or so. I usually will "add" to a position no more than 5 times without starting to close (just risk management) if I am in only 3 or 4 pairs. I may add more if I were to be in more than 15 pairs (I choose not to do that many since my trading time is sometimes distracted during the day). I use a 5 year review for correlation, base it on percentage movement and use that for overall risk evaluation. I use a 1 month and 6 month price difference (intraday rather than closing) for my final determination. Hope this helps!
Since the primary focus on all trading should be entry points based on market conditions (not general strategies), you would find that we enter the "best" of the two stocks first...let me try to explain. If the market starts to rally, and since AOL has a higher beta than VIA, I would buy the AOL if there was a solid bid in VIA that I could hit if the market (or AOL) had a sudden turn around. So, if I could not sell the AOL at a good profit, I would simply hit the VIA, thus putting on both sides of the pair. This is an example of "crutch" trading. Most money in trading is made by traders who use all the criteria available and read the tape correctly. If it could be fully automated, then there would be no edge for professional traders, and no marketplace for any of us to profit from.
Thanks Don, This is the type of answer I had expected earlier. I apologize for being negative, I certainly have nothing against you or your firm (I trade futures, not stocks, so I have no affiliation with anyone). I have just always wondered how pairs were traded intraday since they seem to require long holding periods to capitalize on a reversion. Thank you for taking the time to walk us through an example. Thanks, Kirk