Trend Spotter

[trendie]

this has obviously got to a very bad stage, from where there is no recovery, bearing in mind the strength of feelings in the recent posts.

assuming sid trades his calls, would him posting his account statements redeem the situation ?
( ditto PTS_USER1 )

one of the problems of having a selective chat-room, where dissent results in expulsion, ( I personally asked to join the room, to monitor calls prior to buying, I got no response, so I stopped ), is that the calls and such are not open to scrutiny by an outside source.
the chatroom calls, if not recorded in the way a thread can timestamp calls, can result in selective memories, leading to the kinds of problems we are experiencing here.

is it really worth posting on this thread, when we are denied the benefit of access to the data, calls, opinions etc ?

if you are going to deny the majority an insight to the paltalk room, it is pointless trying to convince us that such and such events took place or didnt.

WITHOUT THE RAW DATA, WE CANNOT FORM AN OBJECTIVE OPINION.

I did originally suggest on this thread, that we draw a line underneath the last tranche of bad feeling, and that TS post live calls here on T2W.
This doesnt appear to have happened.

Personally, this thread is pointless, apart from the obvious comic nature.
( sorry to those who lost money. its all part of the learning curve. perhaps in future you actually spend time to learn to do something for yourselves. )

 

[schoe]

Firstly I must apologise if anyone bought this system because I and other Senior members endorsed it.

I was taken in by Sid and his claims I was ready to stop trading when I first spoke to Sid but he pursuaded me that his system was the answer to my inablility to make money trading forex intraday. As a result I cashed in an insurance policy to refund an account and start again. Sadly that account is now down by more than 50 % and I am going to stop trading intraday for a while until I can find something that actually does work and instill the discipline needed to make it in this very tough arena.

Sid has told me the same things as Daz I have never visited his address but have spoken to him on the phone many times and he is a very likeable and believable guy but listening to Cali and others has led me to the conclusion he is dishonest like many other vendors who can't trade but have dillusions that they can. I have come back from holiday to find that the best traders in the room had left which was a shame as I was learning a lot from them especially t-trader. (please pm me if reading this T )

I apologise again for my positive comments at the start of this thread all I want like everyone else on here wants to do is become profitable trading I will continue to learn. Thankyou for all the traders in the room who have been very supportive and shared their methods and when I make it (and I will ) I hope to repay some of the people who have helped me.

Regards Schoe.

 

[zatinus]

unfortunately I have to agree...

Do not give this man, Heywood Miles ( aka sid ), any of your money. All the software
he sends you can be found for free and his mentoring is a joke. Save your money
and use it to fund a mini account AFTER you've gone through some demos.
Do not trust sid. He is a liar.

I first met sid in a paltalk room called piphunters. It was a room left behind by a trader
name SoulTrader who decided to make a private room for him and his fellow traders.
Sid took over the free room and I continued to visit since I wasn't invited to Souls room.
There was a regular group of folks who showed up for most days, but sid and I were there
every day and we soon became friends.

There was no pressure for anyone to make calls, it was just a room of folks trading.
Sometimes people would make calls, though usually just the exits...

During the dollar rebound, when the cable was plunging through the 1.90s and 1.80s,
sid was getting slaughtered in the market constantly betting on a cable rebound that never
came. His losses were in the -250 pips a day range. It got to the point where he was so down and out that he needed to take some time off, which he did for a week or two.

When he returned online he told me about this indicator he had written called trendspotter.
Said it was "the dogs bollacks" [ though i still dont know what you brits think are so great
about dogs balls...], that it was making him huge pips, that this was going to be our gold mine. I loaded it up and was skeptical - it looked to me like it would get whipsawed alot. So I
stopped working on bender( my own trading software) and took "his" indicator and made
an autotrader out of it. Turned it on and... it lost money like crazy. No great surprise there,
one indicator does not a system make. Sid was "banging my head", but he couldn't come up
with a solution for the whipsawing. I had an idea and wrote an indicator called BolliTrigger and
incorporated it into the autotrader. It still lost money, but not nearly as much and showed some promise. All along sid was saying we were partners. The system wasn't ready for prime time, but sid wanted to launch and so he went live with the site and posted first message of this thread.

Sid created the phoenix forex room and the other free phoenix room and chaos ensued.
What has happened there has been well documented in this thread, so I wont repeat.
Sid was having a nightmare of a time getting people started with the software, since there were different files that went into different directories, so I wrote an installer for him to automate the process.

Sid was moving during the first few weeks of the new room, so he wasn't able to go online
( though he'd show up on my [ and others ] msn messenger for a sec then 'appear offline' ).
Im a member of the metatraders yahoo group where folks post indicators for free. A message
appeared that had a question about a indicator called acstrend and it had the code in the message. The code looked VERY similar to what sid had said was his indicator. At the same
time their was the accusations on this thread from ablesystems that trendspotter
was a rippoff of it. Being a programmer, it was obvious to me that sid had taken someone else's code and called it his own. I confronted sid 3 times on this matter, hoping he would come clean to me, but he just kept lying about it. Once said that it was "very very very strange" that the code was so similar. Over this period I began investigating the code and found that
there were several versions of it ( one was even posted in this thread ). I eventually found one
that was the EXACT same code, only difference was the comment "written by sid" - yeah, right...
All this time he is telling everyone he wrote it and how people were calling him a genius for it.
LOL.

For several months now, I've been trying to get sid to pay me the percentage of the profits
he had promised me. This was done via me IMing him ( he stopped contacting me after the third time I asked him about "his" code ). He kept saying "I am on it",, "yes, Im working on it",
"will stop at the bank today","transferring from paypal today", etc. etc. etc.

All lies.

Finally, I started asking about it in phoenix room so others would know what a liar and fraud
he is. Same lies ensued. His mate, Mr Oust, assured me he would 'sort it out' when he talked to sid. Haven't seen him around since... Other folks started contacting me on how sid had
lied to them too. Folks that wanted their refund, but couldn't get sid to respond to any of their
emails.

And now I have been banned from the room. Which is fine really, its about ready to collapse
and sids reputation is in the toilet. Its funny, anytime someone would post the slightest remark
here on how they felt they weren't getting what they had paid for, sid would start whining and crying like a 2 year old how people were stabbing him in the back. At the same time, he was
twisting his knife in mine.

I'll be starting a new paltalk room in the near future, just traders trading. Trying out new ideas.
Discussing any system they like. There is only one restriction : No snakes allowed.

CaliDragon

unfortunately i have to acknowledge that i lost £305 on a bad trade. I am fairly new to trading and as such might have been looking for the holy grail

Phoenixforex was sold as a system initially, in other words the impression was originally given that you would get all your signals directly from the system. In only later transpired that you need to add 5 spoons of discretion.

Before I bought the system I checked with Sid whether I would be given the code to the indicator as well since I want to backtest in another application (Amibroker). I was told I would be given everything I need. I had to struggle for a few weeks to get the code from sid, threatening with wanting a refund before he mailed me the code.

I can confirm what CaliDragon posted on here, the code is an exact copy of code available on the internet, the only thing I found that was changed was the name at the top of the code and the shape used to draw on the graph, i.e. changed from a dot to an arrow.
I can also confirm that backtesting the code as it is gives bad results.

Anyone is welcome to contact me via PM to confirm the facts.

So overall a negative experience, but here is the couple of positives I can take out of this:
1. I have now learned my lesson, never, never, never to buy a system, success in trading takes commitment and hardwork, there is no shortcut.
2. I have re-written the code and might use it as a building block in my trading...... the jury is still out on this one.

regards
ZATinus

 

[StarDog]

I too can confirm that the code was ripped off. (Like I was) I rushed in and paid for this system without seeing any proof that it works.

My advise to anyone even considering purchasing this (or any system), ask to see statements. Don't base a purchase on someone who 'claims' they are making 4000 pips a month...Ask to see proof first.

 

[Freefox]

Hi All,

Firstly, I rarely post on any forums even though I am a long-time experienced trader, but this thread has certainly provoked my interest.

After spending the last few days reading the entire thread on balance, ‘Trend Spotter’ does seem to have something going for it. The ‘proof’ for me is that several long established members seem be using it or at least have got some benefit from the overall package. This is weighed against some disgruntled people (mainly ‘newbies’) who can’t get it to work for them either through apparently insufficient or no clearly defined trading rules included with the package. It is clearly not a ‘black-box’ nor a highly mechanical system and this element of ‘filtering’ of trade selection I would put down more to the ‘Art of Trading’ or if you like experience, which often people are not prepared to put the time and effort into achieving. (ie. the ‘get rich quick’ mentality). However, there does seem to be some justification for their inability to getting the system working for them, as there appears to be poor or sporadic ongoing support, particularly in the PalTalk group from Sid, which is a real shame. I know Sid genuinely appears to have family and other matters to deal with which has no doubt caused or contributed to this but nonetheless it has obviously resulting in frustrations in some quarters and subsequent refunds.

This support issue has resulted in the formation of an alternate PalTalk group to circumnavigate problems in the ‘official’ support group, resulting in a fragmentation of support amongst the users, curtailing exchange of ideas and voicing of constructive criticism which is always useful in developing trading styles. Surely, it would benefit all – PhoenixForex, purchasers and prospective purchasers - if everyone let bygones by bygones, put issues and disputes behind them and get just the ONE bigger and better thriving community on PalTalk.

I would like to contribute more but when I went to website to purchase Trend Spotter it is no longer taking new members!! I managed to find what I think was the alternate group (‘the peoples pips’) but I was banned immediately upon entry because I hadn’t purchased the system. I found this surprising, as obviously this group has been set up because the official group fails to provide the level of support the users of the system would like. I can’t see what banning me from this alternate group achieves – admittedly I haven’t purchased the system (because you can’t anymore!) but in any case even if I purchased the system, the instigators of the second group get no benefit from the purchase, only PhoenixForex. I can’t see the logic of this or am I missing something?????

Finally, though I am an experienced trader, mainly in futures, I have never trade Forex before. Could someone recommend a broker? Preferably one I can use with MetaTrader as I have downloaded it and I am going to have a look at the ‘free’ equivalent indicator previously posted. I have an Interactive Broker account but the spread on there seems to average around 10 pips plus they charge commission which doesn’t seem very competitive with some others I have seen mentioned.

Thanks to all in advance.

 

[Psiphere]

Hello FreeFox,

I have no comments on the PhoenixForex system or group at this time, however I'd like to offer you a few possible MetaTrader brokers.

Most are beginning to upgrade to MetaTrader 4 now but some are still back on MetaTrader 3 and are currently in the process of the upgrade to 4 but just working out bugs for now.

Two that are still running on version 3 and are in America are Interbank FX and FXDirectDealer. FXDD has the lowest spread of any of the MetaTrader brokers I have seen. They told me it may still be a couple of months before they have worked out the bugs and implamented MT4 but assured me that they are working on it and will make a press release or public announcement of some sort when they are ready to switch over.

www.interbankfx.com and www.fxdd.com

There are a few others in some other places in the world that I am aware of, I believe they are all on MT4 now.

Alpari (Russia) - www.alpari-idc.com - (can trade gold and other securities throught them as well)

Neurex / Neuimex (Switzerland) - www.neurex.ch

FIBO Group (London, England) - www.fibogroup.com

And then a few others that I can't recall the website addresses but you can easily find on Google by typing their name (and possibly adding 'forex' after the name).

MIG Investments (Swiss based, offices in U.S. and other places)

North Finance (Wein)

Forex Global Investment LLC

EuroNet Financial Network LLC

----- That's about all I can recall at the moment.

Hope this list is helpful.

From your friendly neighborhood Canadian,
- Psi

 

[trendie]

hi Freefox,

I hope TS followers heed your wise words, but dont hold your breath !
I have twice suggested drawing a line underneath all the problems, and start from scratch, but neither side has taken up the offer. Only further attacks and counter-attacks.

You are right about TS being a good basis for a strategy !
The whipsaws can be ironed out, if you apply another indicator to it.
In fact, over the past 2 days, TS has behaved impeccably on my favourite time-frame of 15-mins.

As you have pointed out, the newbies dont want to put the work in.

PS: try standard MACD settings as filter to buy/sell into the same direction of the MACD signal. Whipsaws can be limited.
PPS: I dont use it.
PPPS: If the effort and energy lambasting each other was harnessed to make TS work, they could be doing alright.

Why not use this thread to suggest improvements to the basic ASCtrend signals ?
Or might that be too productive? ( slow day, waiting for GBPUSD to start falling )

 

[Mr Chill]

The room was set up i believe because some of the traders who questioned sid's methods have been banned ,also when sid's girlfriend who has been trading for about 3 weeks started making trades up and saying how wonderful she was ,making loads of pips and is'nt this easy ,when in fact she has'nt even placed a real trade in her life , a lot of people including myself found this very irritating . PHIL5000.

 

[Indi]

Broker

Hi Fox,
Hmm I think you are looking at 'Ideal' currency exchange prices and tht is for converting money within yr IB a/c.

Select IDEAL pro,(free) this is for trading and you will get the best spreads I have so far seen.
EURUSD is 1 pip spread,as good as it gets and u can trade small sizes.
Hope u make it big time...

 

[Freefox]

Thanks for all the replies and informative feedback.

Psiphere – thanks for the comprehensive list of MT brokers, I’ll check them out.

Trendie – thanks for suggestions about filtering. I’ve previously found the ADX to be as good as any at identifying trends and I’ll initially try that out. I see what you mean about TS been spot on today in 15 min timeframe. I’ve checked out the equivalent ‘free’ indicator and the signals were very profitable.

Indi, thanks for telling me about IDEALPro in IB. I managed to get that working but only after going Account Administration as initially no prices would show.

Mr Chill – thanks for the further insight as to why the alternate PalTalk room was set up. But the main point I was making is that it arose out of dissatisfaction with the official room. As a consequence I could not see the logic in ‘you’ banning me just because I hadn’t bought the system (and unable to because it’s not selling any longer). Even if I were able to purchase the system (which I would still like to if I could), it would only help PhoenixForex and not ‘you others’.

What’s the point – your group gains nothing from this approach? I personally would have thought it preferable to encourage as many active traders as possible so as to gain from collective experience of those who are enthusiastic about learning to trade using TS.

 

[Mark Hellikson]

Hi All,

Firstly, I rarely post on any forums even though I am a long-time experienced trader, but this thread has certainly provoked my interest.

After spending the last few days reading the entire thread on balance, ‘Trend Spotter’ does seem to have something going for it. The ‘proof’ for me is that several long established members seem be using it or at least have got some benefit from the overall package. This is weighed against some disgruntled people (mainly ‘newbies’) who can’t get it to work for them either through apparently insufficient or no clearly defined trading rules included with the package. It is clearly not a ‘black-box’ nor a highly mechanical system and this element of ‘filtering’ of trade selection I would put down more to the ‘Art of Trading’ or if you like experience, which often people are not prepared to put the time and effort into achieving. (ie. the ‘get rich quick’ mentality). However, there does seem to be some justification for their inability to getting the system working for them, as there appears to be poor or sporadic ongoing support, particularly in the PalTalk group from Sid, which is a real shame. I know Sid genuinely appears to have family and other matters to deal with which has no doubt caused or contributed to this but nonetheless it has obviously resulting in frustrations in some quarters and subsequent refunds.

This support issue has resulted in the formation of an alternate PalTalk group to circumnavigate problems in the ‘official’ support group, resulting in a fragmentation of support amongst the users, curtailing exchange of ideas and voicing of constructive criticism which is always useful in developing trading styles. Surely, it would benefit all – PhoenixForex, purchasers and prospective purchasers - if everyone let bygones by bygones, put issues and disputes behind them and get just the ONE bigger and better thriving community on PalTalk.

I would like to contribute more but when I went to website to purchase Trend Spotter it is no longer taking new members!! I managed to find what I think was the alternate group (‘the peoples pips’) but I was banned immediately upon entry because I hadn’t purchased the system. I found this surprising, as obviously this group has been set up because the official group fails to provide the level of support the users of the system would like. I can’t see what banning me from this alternate group achieves – admittedly I haven’t purchased the system (because you can’t anymore!) but in any case even if I purchased the system, the instigators of the second group get no benefit from the purchase, only PhoenixForex. I can’t see the logic of this or am I missing something?????

Finally, though I am an experienced trader, mainly in futures, I have never trade Forex before. Could someone recommend a broker? Preferably one I can use with MetaTrader as I have downloaded it and I am going to have a look at the ‘free’ equivalent indicator previously posted. I have an Interactive Broker account but the spread on there seems to average around 10 pips plus they charge commission which doesn’t seem very competitive with some others I have seen mentioned.

Thanks to all in advance.

Take a look at FXDD. They're a very good brokerage firm with excellent spreads...

 

[The Wanderer]

Hi trendie
Thanks for your helpful post.You seem to have "cracked the code" so to speak but for my part I paid £305 for the system and all I received was the disc to download and nothing else-no instructions as to when to enter or exit a trade , meaning of the indicators most appropriate time frames to use etc etc.

I don't consider myself to be totally thick-I have a reasonable grasp of at least the basics of TA but if nobody gives you any instructions as to how to operate the system how is one to progress ?

Perhaps I missed something but during my regular visits to the chat room I never heard any instructions with regard to system usage - in the light of what has been said perhaps "Sid" himself does not know how to trade it.

Suppose I should be grateful -at least I got the disc unlike some-but some form of instructions would have certainly helped.

 

[trendie]

The Wanderer,

When I downloaded the free ASCTRend signals, all I saw was something that picked reversals.
Strictly speaking, if you look at where the arrows appear, the program is picking reversals, no different to OB/OS.
If you look at the whipsaws, they appear in ranges, so anything that detects change of trend on a larger time-frame ( slower signal ), to confirm the TS signal, helps you to avoid too many of the whipsaws.

I havent cracked the code, it was just a matter of seeing where it worked, and accepted it, and seeing where it didnt work, and applied another indicator to account for it. ( and used discretion to identify ranging )

As Freefox has said, ADX is just as good for avoiding whipsaws.
Combined together, it is possible to make ASCTrend work profitably.

You could as easily use Stochs on bigger number, such as 30,3,3, to avoid the whipsaws.

( another observation; when it is whipsawing, sometimes you can see stepping. ie; there is a sell signal, then buy, then HIGHER sell, then HIGHER buy. Although it is whipsawing, you can see it is trending UP in a whipsaw! What you do is use the buy signals, and ignore the sells until you get a sell that is LOWER than the previous one. this can help you get into the trend even though it appears to be whipsawing.)

Ultimately, screen-time is required, and to observe, and test.

Then you make the rules up that reflect your observations !

 

[Freefox]

Trendie,

I’ve had a look at the code behind the TS indicator so as to understand the logic behind it. Unfortunately, the syntax is not one I’m familiar with so I was going to spend some time reading about the programming language behind it so I can dissect it. I don’t like trading using something I don’t understand the basis of!

Is it possible for you to post a breakdown of the processing either in pseudo-code or English (I don’t mind you using techie language as I am an IT consultant/programmer so I should be able to pick it up)? It will no doubt save me a great deal of time reading through the programming help text that comes with Metatrader so any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[trendie]

hi Freefox,

Despite also being an IT/prog/techie type, I cant translate the TS code !
( I have the same problem with the Jurick TPO indicator ).
However, if you jon the Metatrader group, I believe on yahoo, maybe someone knoweldgeable may help.

However, the 2 parameters you can change, ( Risk, set to default 3, and CountBars, set to default 300), show you can get different results by changing those parameters.
You can get whatever result you want, if you change the parameters enough.

I only played around with TS out of curiosity, as with Jurick, etc.
( I have a lot of free time on my hands, as my timeframes are 15-mins, 60-mins, and 4 hours.
Trades last hours rather than minutes, so have time to mess about. )

I have gravitated towards trendlines. Draw a trendline on a chart, and it remains true, no matter how you change the timeframe or scale, or number of bars counted.

Sorry not to be of more help, but my focus takes me towards trendlines. ( and some Moving Averages, and Pivots )

 

[Mark Hellikson]

hi Freefox,

Despite also being an IT/prog/techie type, I cant translate the TS code !
( I have the same problem with the Jurick TPO indicator ).
However, if you jon the Metatrader group, I believe on yahoo, maybe someone knoweldgeable may help.

However, the 2 parameters you can change, ( Risk, set to default 3, and CountBars, set to default 300), show you can get different results by changing those parameters.
You can get whatever result you want, if you change the parameters enough.

I only played around with TS out of curiosity, as with Jurick, etc.
( I have a lot of free time on my hands, as my timeframes are 15-mins, 60-mins, and 4 hours.
Trades last hours rather than minutes, so have time to mess about. )

I have gravitated towards trendlines. Draw a trendline on a chart, and it remains true, no matter how you change the timeframe or scale, or number of bars counted.

Sorry not to be of more help, but my focus takes me towards trendlines. ( and some Moving Averages, and Pivots )

Trendie, would your trend lines happen to be Tom DeMark type trend lines, or do you prefer the less dynamic/more static trend lines that cover longer periods of time?

Thanks.

 

[trendie]

Mark,

no. I use bog-standard "squint-at-the-screen" and see where notable dips and spikes are.

do you recommend DeMark trendlines ? ( ie; use them profitably )

 

[Mark Hellikson]

Mark,

no. I use bog-standard "squint-at-the-screen" and see where notable dips and spikes are.

do you recommend DeMark trendlines ? ( ie; use them profitably )

I know some people who use DM trend lines (TLs) in conjunction with Peter Bain's course, but I've not done enough testing with them to know if they'd be useful over the long haul. I know others who use the standard TLs you're referring to and make good use of them on the 5 min and 1 hour charts. Was just curious...

Thanks Trendie.

 

[danatkdan]

Hi everyone

I paid £305 for the Phoenix system over 2 months ago. I didn't receive anything from them in the first week so decided to cancel my order and get a refund. No refund has been forthcoming. I have mailed them five times to ask for a refund but have only received two replies and no refund.

The first reply said that my system was on it's way, despite my request for a refund. I mailed to say I did not want the system but heard nothing back. The system still did not arrive and no word from Phoenix.

I mailed them again threatening legal action and they replied saying my refund was on it's way, but had been delayed due to a holdup at the postoffice but would be with me in two days. This didn't make much sense as I paid via Paypal.

Anyway, my refund didn't arrive so I mailed again - not even a reply this time. I tried calling the phone number they sent me in their first message but it gives the unobtainable tone.

I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and hoped this was just a misunderstanding but it looks like I've been ripped off. I would like to warn others to think carefully before sending any money to these people.

If anyone can help me get in contact with them to pursue my refund that would be appreciated.

thanks,
Dan.

 

[donaldduke]

Another sucker born every minute..

Ive been busy over the last four months and i havent spent much time on T2W.

I cant believe some of the people on this board, people who should no better actually buying into this garbage.

How much money do people have to waste before they learn..