I subscribe to two of the autotrade services offered by TOS, one daytradeing stocks and the other longer term positions in options. The options service has been 100% accurate in relation to the performance figures advertised on the web, but the day trade numbers often differ considerably from what I am actually receiving from TOS. The latest "discrepancy" is regarding a trade Tuesday 3rd July to buy a stock, market on opening, and sell $x above the fill or sell market on close. It was a losing trade of 2.39%, the fifth substantial loss in nine trading days, especially considering the profit targets are around .65/.75% a day. 4th July I receive this:- "Stock pick for 7/4/2007 No trade today due to holiday. Couldnât get filled for XXX on market open yesterday (9.30 am est) so trade cancelled " I have queried this with the service and with the head of autotrading at TOS, and am awaiting a replywhich I will post here if there is interest.
It is not usually what they sell but how you use it. I guarrantee that if I had a proven profitable system and 50 people bought it and the ruleswere very clear and precise at least 2/3rds of people would lose using it. That may sound like bollocks but it isnt there are plenty of profiable systems some free some not but people just cant follow them. Curtis faith in his latest book said the same the Turtles were all given the same exact system yet the results varied widely some made no money and some became millionaries. It is your money managemant and ability to stay consistant that are the biggest problems.
Thanks for the nice informative post. I think you got the wrong idea though. The poll sort of implies I think that something less than 20% of "trading services" are any good. But I left the possibility open that there may be some that work. Then again, I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people out there selling snake oil whether they know it is snake oil or not, even as there are a few people out there selling (or giving away with a little study) methods that work.
I'm not denying some trading methods work. But sometimes people are fooled by randomness and sometimes they're fooled by salesmanship or their own delusions.
A well known trading author replied to an email I sent him a while back asking him if he knew any reputable services and he actually came back with 4 one free and three paid.
I most always get the wrong idea. Were I to trade any of the systems offerred by about anyone, I have a feeling that I would do okay using the system. After doing what was suggested I would not continue after a while though. The reason would be something along the lines of feeling that I could see that there was more being offered by the markets that the system did not pick up on. I use a system that is roughly 50 years old and just adapted to modern times of having computers and the like. New markets have also been invented and they trade the same way as the older ones. I am in the market all of the time because of the continuing price change. Price change is what I use to make money. I would suggest that there are a small number of systems that you could trade successfully. The reason I say this can be shown by your posting the display or newspapers that you are or have ever used in your life over the last 30 years. You may not have a good business plan nor a good logging method or debriefing method. So, I figure we are different kinds of people and that is why I feel that you are on the outside looking in. Imagine any sort of system. Think of when it is in the market. This is when it makes money as it remains on the right side of the market. You contend that systems may not be making money. Most likely it is the fact that you are not using the system correctly due to lack of understanding of markets or lack of experience of being in the market when the particular system is making money. The points that you are making that I missed and am missing still are the norm for me. I don't get a lot of what people think they know.