JimmyJam, From the sound of it, it seems you still don't beleve what they say. By the way, I don't like investing on others, since as you said previously, good automated systems don't ever need to be sold.
The most successful automated system in the world Only losers keep on dreaming about the most successful automated system in the world. I only have time to look after my own, possibly not the best in the world.
A better question to ask would be, "what is the system with the best consistency and longevity?" I have seen a lot of high return systems fail spectacularly and end up giving back a good portion of the profits that they made. A system that can grind out consistent profits year in year out is ultimately worth much more than something with a huge return that fails 9 months down the road.
I think everyone just need to find a trading style (discretionary, fundamental, systematic) that suits their own abilities and experiences. To make a completely unfair comparison, I can not pick a stock to save my life (and I spent some time as a discretionary trader in a hedge fund, with predictable results), and I am awed by legends like Buffett, Tudor Jones, that can discretionary trade to unworldly gains. So I was faced with one of two choices, either throw myself into studying discretionary trading, 24x7 for a few years, hopefully then gain enough insight so that I can at least be "decent" (I doubted I could ever be *good*) in manual trading. Or, alternatively, play to my background strength in comp. sci and mathematical theory, and try my hand on systematic trading. And so far (knock on wood), I think I have made the right choice. I remember looking at a demo given by Peter Borish at a conference more than a few years back ('97?), and all the lights went on in my head. It was one of those life changing moments of realization, not specific to CTC's type of trading, but system development overall.
Thanks for your advice. Although I was sort of joking previously , it did bring me some interests about automated trading. I may find a super edge in automated trading. I'll have to try, or I never know the answer. I have many ideas in my mind, but I don't know how to program them. I don't know much about programming. Hard journey but challenging, huh? Trading is both my job and my hobby.
I agree with previous posters in that "best" is subjective. It's often the case that the best performing funds are designed for tax efficiency - they seek either a 20%+ or return or a total loss. And, as such, they apply lots of leverage, which necessitates large drawdowns. How you measure "best" based off of that is highly personalized.