Winning in the Futures Market Book

Anyone read the book Winning in the Futures Market by George Angell. Apparently he has devised a system called the LSS day trading system which is supposed to be quite effective. Anyone read the book and can vouch for the effectiveness of this type of system.
Thx
Mick

My understanding is that George Angell was just repeating and tweaking the original system devised by George Douglass Taylor, called The Taylor Trading Technique. I have Taylor's book. There is a section in there called the LSS 3-day cycle method.

George Douglass Taylor wrote the original book in 1950 - way before the use of charts, so the book is filled with scribblings, and calculations. There are also lots of mistakes (well, I certainly found quite a few, such as buy instead of sell, and vice versa, and columns of figures which don't add up to the total stated).

I did set up an Excel spreadsheet and followed the theory for several months, just for a bit of fun. I really couldn't see whether it worked or not - it did on some days, and on other days it didn't so there was not even vague consistency.

The system may have worked very well in 1950 before electronic trading, day trading, etc, but while I am sure the book contains gems, I found it confusing (both scribblings and text).

I'll give you a taste of the writing style; here's two consecutive paragraphs taken at random from the book:

The amount of rally from a Buying Day Low to the close, determines the action for the Selling Objective, as weak or strong, unless it be one of those days where you get all the range on the dame day, then the opening on the Selling Day, is liable to be down.

The decline from a Selling Day High, may cause the price to go under the previous low - Buying Day Low - which will show the Short Sale Objective as being weak, if the High on Selling Day was made FIRST and the close is somewhere near the low of the day.

Click to expand...

Multiply that type and quantity of writing style 800 times, and that is the book! With scribblings inbetween.

Hi Mick

I have two other books by George Angell and have found they quite informative, they both mention the LSS method.

The LSS "book method" was developed over 40 years ago by George Douglas Taylor.

The LSS method works on a three day cycle, a buy day (Long). a sell day and a short sell day.

I have not traded it personally so cannot comment on the results.

I do know that Mr Angell has also developed a software program to do the calculations.

Many of his ideas have worked for a considerable period (30 years plus) so I count this as good advice.

Hope this helps

mik,

LSS extends (and refines, I suppose) Taylors basic methods in several ways. Taylors trading technique is fine (albeit almost incomprehensible in parts, just as Skim suggests), however the greatest difficulty people have (and you'll know why if you ever try and follow it ) is determining when the market "switches" from it's "normal" 3 day cycle to an extended 4 or 5 day cycle.

The most basic premise of LSS is to provide a method that identifies when you should apply a "recount" or "re-phase" the cycle.

I still keep my LSS worksheet for the S&P up to date even though I don't use it any more (old habits die hard).

The rest of LSS is mainly opening range and first hour breakout/breakdown methods. As such, applied in a systematic way, across a wide range of commodities they are no more or less effective than ACD, Crabel or any one of the other opening range/first hour BO/BD type systems. In fact, you'd probably struggle to tell the difference between most of Mark Fischers ABD and LSS.

The main issues with LSS are that 1) you'll need to be extremely well capitalised to trade it as it should be traded. 2) You'll need to be extremely disciplined in applying it, without emotion or opinion, across multiple markets.

Myself, I didn't feel the potential rewards of the method (over and above other methods) justified the increased capital required to trade it and I can't handle trading multiple markets.

Anyway, on the basis that there doesn't appear to me to be a huge difference between LSS and Fischer's ACD. If I was inclined to trade the markets that way I would probably sign up with Fischers outfit and get full support from them daily, rather than being left to work out all the LSS levels myself across a wide range of markets.

Many thanks to you all for your responses- sorry for the delay in my reply but i've ben away for a couple of days. I also did a search on George Angell - it seems that he had tried to sell his LSS system a few years ago (via an enhancement using software). Various claims were made by this guy which the American courts weren't too happy with. A search on Yahoo will provide full details of the case.
Thanks again.
Mick

Beware, Gearge Angell has a certain reputation. Found the following:

''
Florida Commodity Trading System Developer and New York Publisher Settle CFTC Fraud Action

CFTC Finds that George Angell, TradeWins Publishing and its President, Stephen Schmidt, Fraudulently Marketed Commodity Trading System

Washington, D.C. – The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today the acceptance of offers of settlement from George Angell, of Key West, Florida, TradeWins Publishing Corp. (TradeWins), of Smithtown, New York, and its president, Stephen A. Schmidt, of St. James, New York. In an action filed on March 6, 2002, the CFTC issued an order simultaneously instituting and settling an administrative action against Angell, a developer of commodity futures trading systems. In a second action filed on April 4, 2002, the CFTC filed an order simultaneously instituting and settling an administrative action against TradeWins, a publisher and marketer of investment related books and products, and Schmidt, TradeWins’s president. In each order, the CFTC finds that Angell, TradeWins and Schmidt fraudulently marketed Angell’s trading system.

The orders accompanying the settlements find that for approximately a three-year period beginning in January 1996, Angell, TradeWins and Schmidt fraudulently solicited members of the public to purchase a version of the LSS Day Trading System (“the LSS System”), a signal-based computerized commodity futures trading system. According to the orders, the public was solicited through a series of promotional brochures, which falsely represented that the LSS System’s performance record was based on Angell’s actual commodity trading. In fact, the orders find that the performance results were derived from hypothetical back-testing. The promotional brochures further suggested that prospective customers could review Angell’s personal trading account records when, in truth, these records were not available, according to the orders.

The orders further find that the promotional brochures falsely represented that the LSS System’s performance results had been independently audited and verified. In fact, according to the orders, the firm that purportedly verified the results was not independent. Rather, the orders find that the firm had a financial interest in the success of the LSS System because it was compensated on the basis of the profits earned by the sale of the LSS System.

The CFTC orders find that by such conduct, Angell, acting as a commodity trading advisor, defrauded clients and prospective clients, and that Schmidt aided and abetted that fraud, in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations. The orders find TradeWins responsible for the fraudulent actions of its officer, Schmidt. Angell, TradeWins, and Schmidt consented to the entry of the orders without admitting or denying the findings therein.

The CFTC orders:

direct Angell, TradeWins and Schmidt to cease and desist from further violations of the CEA, as set forth above;
require Angell to pay a $50,000 civil monetary penalty within ten business days of entry of the March 6, 2002, order and to agree not to seek registration for a period of three years;
require TradeWins and Schmidt to jointly and severally pay a $100,000 civil monetary penalty within ten business days of entry of the April 4, 2002, order; and
require them to comply with certain undertakings, including undertakings that prohibit them from making misrepresentations regarding profits and risks associated with trading futures or options.
A copy of the CFTC orders may be found at http://www.cftc.gov''

Caveat Emptor

Angell vs. Williams

Another interesting squabble that occurred about the same time as the foregoing, was a suit by Larry Williams against Angell. Larry sued, and won, a case alleging that George was publishing material which Larry claimed as his own. Angell claimed to be unaware of the similarities between the two. The interesting part is that , not long after, Larry introduced the Williams %R indicator, which is nothing more than the inversion of the Lane's fast stochastic. When confronted with the obvious use of George Lane's material, Williams claimed to be unaware of the similarities, and continued to claim it as original.

3-day method!

There have been many people to use George Douglas Taylor style of trading, and many that have adapted to their individual trading style. I presently use an adapted version of this system and it has worked for me. I have been able to make over 50% since the beginning of December.

I never hold trades over night, and only look to take $200 US out of the market and, I also put in my stops $200 under the markets.

So, I guess I am saying that I know a little about the 3-day cycle methods of training.

American Precious Metals, LLC is the latest company to be shut down in this review of precious metal investments. Companies have been guaranteeing fraudulent investments in gold, silver and other precious metals. I read this here: CFTC taking action against precious metal investment businesses, personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog. Doing what is right is winning what is good.