I used to be a member of Tactical Trader – when Steve Anderton and his son were running the site. It was a good website with valuable information. The community was tight and we supported each other.
For a while I was also a member of Avid Trader – where some of the most skilful traders made their knowledge freely available. It was eventually shut down, but I learned from some amazing people such as Chris Lock of OysterCatcher fame (CNBC commentator), as well as Tepid and Olman and Colby – all outstanding guys who knew their stuff.
I joined Trade2Win many years ago, and I posted my analysis and knowledge on a regular basis. However, bulletin boards tend to be somewhat addictive, and I found I spent too much time reading through inane posts about nothing. So I stopped.
For whatever reason I happened to stop by today to see if there was anything new under the sun. I wanted information on a live trading room I had heard about, and Google directed me here. I found what I was looking for, and I also found some links which were just about me.
We might be in a different decade from when I joined, but the tone is the same and the content is pretty much the same too. Bulletin boards are generally speaking a myopic beehive for chit-chat with little substance. There are exceptions, and some threads are outstanding, but they are sadly few and far between.
I read a posted comment about myself from a guy called “justtrader”. Reading about yourself is an odd experience. On one hand you want to defend yourself if the criticism is unjust or unfair. On the other hand you have to respect that people are entitled to have an opinion, even if you don’t agree with it.
When I read the comments above I thought it was pretty wide off the mark. I run a live trading room with Larry Pesavento and Dr David Paul. If we were to run the room like “justtrader” suggest we run it, then I might as well just sell my integrity and reputation to the highest bidder.
Larry Pesavento has traded for 48 years. He uses geometry to trade. It might sound esoteric but the reality is that it is based around pattern recognition and fib ratios. Larry trades from 3pm until 4pm every day in the room. His trades, ranging from FX to commodities and indices, are posted in real-time. David Paul has traded since the mid 1980’s, and we call him the encyclopaedia of trading knowledge.
I trade from 8am until 11am. My trading style is a little different from Larry and David’s because I have trained myself to only use price as my entry tool. I trade the DAX and I trade the FTSE. All my trades are posted in real-time as well.
I have good days and I have bad days. Today I traded once and I made 44 DAX points on a DAX FILL GAP trade. Yesterday was also a good day. I made 66 DAX points on two trades. The previous day was also great. I made 55 DAX points on two trades. Then there are the days like the 14th of July, where I might as well just sign and hand over a blank cheque to Mr Market. I ended up losing 23 DAX points.
There is a saying in England that states that “those who can do, and those who can’t, they teach”. I look around the seminar market environment and there is literally an abundance of people who offer to teach you how to trade. Some charge quite a lot of money for their material, and some are more reasonable.
Does Greg Secker trade? Does Darren Winter trade? Does Nick McDonald trade? I mention these three because they were the biggest companies out there I know of. I also happen to know all three of the front people, albeit not in great detail. The answer is they all trade. I am not saying if they are good or not. I am saying they trade. Of course they do.
The obvious question of course is rhetorical: can you be a good teacher (of trading) without being able to trade yourself? Many would disagree. Many would say that you can’t be a trading teacher, if you can’t trade. As a matter of fact (fact is in the eye of the beholder, of course, but this holds true for me) most people would say you have to be able to trade well to teach.
I like to point out that you don’t have to be a good trader to be able to teach. For example Hurst, who wrote the amazing cyclical trading course in the 1960’s called “The Magic of Stock Transaction Timing”, stated that he hated trading, and he kept his money in T-Bonds.
Steve Nison who has done more than any other individual in the field of technical analysis /Candlecharts also state that he is not a trader. Hell, do I need to point out to all of you that Edwards and Magee, the guys who wrote the BIBLE of technical analysis, they were journalists. They were not traders.
Nevertheless, when you run a seminar business, I feel that you owe it to the people who invest their time and money in you, to show on a continuous basis, that you trade. My desire to run a trading room stemmed from a desire to show that there are people who can both trade and teach.
I ran a room for a couple of years between 2009 and 2011. Then I closed the room because I wanted to spend time on research. In particular I wanted to study Renko and Point and Figure. I traded alongside my studies, but the trading room was closed.
I came back to start trading in the live trading room in April this year. I ran the room for free for the first 2 months. I often had 400 people in the room following me. Once I started charging for it, the number naturally fell.
I find that one of the biggest obstacles to running a live trading room is calling out trades, which are tradable for the subscribers. Since I am not authorised to give trading and investment advice, I have to call it as it is. I am calling MY TRADES. What subscribers do with this information is ultimately their own responsibility.
However, if I constantly make calls in the DAX or the FTSE, which the subscribers are unable to act upon, because the price has moved away from this level, then I would have to close shop pretty quickly. The way to overcome that is to announce ahead of time that if the market trades at a certain level, then I will execute a trade.
This is integrity. This is what I stand for. I teach, and I run a live trading room to signal to others that what I teach stands up in the market place. There will be losing trades. There will be ****-ups. There will be days where I trade like an idiot, but it is real, and it is honest.
So in closing, why did I choose to respond to “justtrader”?
The answer is that his comments are untrue. They are simply untrue. I do not edit comments from members. I don’t call “after the fact trades”. The subscribers are a mixed of seasoned traders and newbies who want to learn to trade.
Can I trade? The room statistics say that I can. My trading style is not for everyone. Trading is said to be a reflection of your character and temperament. It works for me and it works for some.
As I wind down this comment, and prepare myself for another decade of obscurity, I remind myself that I will likely get people comment on my post – comments that may support or argue against my views – and since I invited it, I will read it with interest.
However, I think what bothered me most about bulletin boards and why I am a very infrequent guest now, is that people say things to you in posts that they would NEVER say if you stood face to face with you. The filter of mutual respect has been removed, and that invites a tone which is often condemning and outright disrespectful.
I had an opportunity to state my case. Now I can leave this site alone for another decade.
Thank you for reading
Tom Hougaard - SUNSEEKER