Readers Questions

In recent days and weeks there has been a flood of new visitors, thanks to the following folks, who have linked to various posts.
http://www.chrisperruna.com/
http://highchartpatterns.blogspot.com/
http://nysetrader.blogspot.com/
http://tradewhileworking.blogspot.com/
http://tyrotrader.blogspot.com/
http://valueblogreview.blogspot.com/
http://stockdaytrading.blogspot.com/
http://www.thekirkreport.com/
http://tradermike.net/
http://greenonthescreen.blogspot.com/

There are lots of mails I am going through currently and answered most of it. If your question is still not answered you should hear by the end of the day.
Here is a quick and dirty summary of most of the things I have said in the individual mails about various issues.


Long Strategies: All things I trade and write about revolves around three basic concepts. Earnings, momentum and neglect. Various strategies are just different versions of same ideas. It is like Coke, Classic Coke, Diet Coke, Vanilla Coke , XXX Coke, etc. versions of same basic strategies.
So if you want to trade them you need a good and deep understanding of those three concepts.
My trading time frames are medium to long durations with most trades lasting weeks to months.

Holy Grail: There is no holy grail. I am not selling any service, no software, no mentoring service and no black boxes. None of this is magical stuff. It will take at least 6 months for anyone to understand and duplicate the strategies.Lot depends on market circumstances, some things do not work under some circumstances. That does not mean the strategy is wrong.


Trading set up: I am surprised by number of questions on this. All I have is two old computers and one laptop. I use Worden brothers TC2000 for data. I also have Amibroker, which I rarely use. From TC2000 software I pull data in to my own data analysis and trading system development software and bulk of my systems operate on it.
I use Interactive Brokers.


Scans: All scans I have mentioned so far are in TC2000. When trying to use them in other programmes be careful of volume parameters because TC uses different volume parameters.


Returns: I do not disclose my returns, but I am profitable for last 6 years and have outperformed market by large margins. How much you will make out of these strategies depends on how you execute them, how much you understand them and above all what kind of risk management strategies you use. I get high returns because I classify my ideas as A, B, C, class ideas and risk different amounts on different ideas (A-10%, B-up to 5% and C1%). Also I vary my risk based on market phases. I also vary my risk based on how much I am up for a year. If early in the year I have high returns then I risk more on some ideas in subsequent months. That can make significant difference to your returns.

Lot of you have asked for recommended books. I will by the end of this week put together a list of 5 to 10 books or resources which might be helpful.