New testimonial

 

Below is a testimonial received from Paul, who I have known for a number of years now and has continued to make progress as a trend follower:

The joy of helping an aspiring trend follower

A while back I received an urgent message from one of the traders in my mentoring group. He managed to get himself into a trade where a trend had developed in his favour and was now (in his words) "going parabolic". 

This person had been developing his method over a period of time, so that it best meshed with his full-time job, which in a pre-COVID world demanded long hours and lots of transatlantic travel. As a result, his chosen timeframe and parameters are somewhat longer-term than my own, but the underlying principles remain exactly the same.

New testimonial

Just before Christmas I received the following from Stefan, an aspiring trend follower based in Germany:

New testimonial

This week I received the following testimonial from Stephen, who I have now known for a number of years and has been an active member within our small group of traders:

Do you have what it takes?

Last month I had the pleasure of catching up with a trader I have known for a few years now, and mentored for a while. We talked for a couple of hours about trading in general, as well as how he has continued to develop himself as a trader. He is now trading full-time and has developed his own method (more of a swing-based style) which he is trading profitably.

A trader's development - a case study Part 2

Back in the summer of 2013, I wrote this post about an aspiring trader called Tom (not his real name) who I first met in early 2012, and gave a potted history of how he had developed as a trader over that period of time. Tom was the first trader that I mentored. This post now updates that story...

Discount offer - 3 days left

A quick reminder that the discount offer for 1-2-1 training or mentoring expires in 3 days.

Be part of our team of like-minded traders, and use the timeless principles of successful trend followers and Market Wizards.

Those who do not have the desire to succeed, are not committed to put in the necessary work, or who do not want to learn to think for themselves with a trend followers' mindset need not apply.

Discount offer - 1-2-1 training and mentoring

To coincide with the commencement of the new trading record, I am running a discount offer for both 1-2-1 training and mentoring.

The prices for both these services has been reduced by 20%, and the offer runs until 14 November 2017.

For more details, please go here.

Coming up - new trade record

Regular readers of the blog will know that I kept track of all trades taken and the associated performance metrics covering the period July 2012 to April 2017, at which point I took a short break from the markets.

PDF copies of those records are available here.

This covered the good, the bad and the ugly of trend following. Sure, there were losing trades (lots of them!) and losing phases, but that is the nature of the markets, and typical of this type of approach to trading.

Despite a win rate of only 30%, the annualised returns equated to almost +75%, with an overall return of +470%.*

This can only be achieved by following the time-honoured principles of trading breakouts, cutting losses, letting your profits run and using good risk control.

As from 01 November, I will be starting a new record of all trades taken going forward, with all of the same metrics.

New testimonial

Recently I caught up with Craig, an experienced London-based trader who I have been working with for a couple of years, together with his trading partner Aaron, a for a day as part of the mentoring programme.

We had an exhaustive (and enjoyable!) session covering many topics, including further ideas about developing their edge, running multiple systems, correlation and risk.

Slave to the system

Whenever a trend follower captures a big winning trade, outsiders often wonder if it down to pure luck, skill or something else?

In a lot of cases, trends can start to develop in spite of the current sentiment and beliefs of many of the market participants.

Trend followers however approach the markets in a unemotional state - if their method tells them to enter a trade at a certain price level, they enter. Similarly, if their method tells them to exit at a certain price level, they exit.

A trend follower's first big win

Yet again the mentoring programme continues to deliver results. Here is an excerpt from an email I got a few weeks back from Paul, who is a trader based in Scotland:

A busy old time

The last 24 hours or so have been busy. Last night, we had our regular group webinar which lasted just under a couple of hours - always a good time and a great chance to bounce ideas around, look at lots of charts and discuss trading issues that have cropped up. 

It was clearly evident from the stocks we were discussing that the quality of setups they were looking at and taking have made a quantum leap forward en masse. It made me wonder how I missed taking some of them myself!

A great day

Yesterday I was able to travel to London and meet a couple of the traders in our mentoring group.

It was an interesting meet up for me because both of these guys are in the IT industry, and have used their own skill set to enhance their own trading approach or routine. 

Discount offer - mentoring programme

LIMITED TIME PERIOD OFFER

Make the next twelve months a year to remember and start achieving the returns you desire.

Learn how to:   

• Cut losses short and let profits run,
• Use strong risk control, and
• Develop the correct trading mindset.  

Using the magic formula of expectancy, opportunity and efficiency.

Be part of our team of like-minded traders, and use the timeless principles of successful trend followers and Market Wizards.

Make sure you sign up and reserve your place TODAY!

What you get: 

• Initial 1-2-1 training
• Access to members only twitter feed
• Access to watchlist of potential setups and other resources
• Entry levels, stop placement levels etc., given on any trades taken in real-time*
• Regular group webinars
• Ongoing email/Skype support 

Working within a small team, you can accelerate your learning and development process, and work to avoid or eliminate the major mistakes that the majority of traders make.

See some of these testimonials from traders who have been part of our group and have benefited accordingly.

For a limited period, annual membership has been reduced to £900 - 25% OFF.

Offer expires 30 November 2015.

Go here to sign up.

* All entries and exits taken are recorded and result in the performance and metrics shown on the blog.

Dealing with profit erosion

Today was an interesting day. My one existing long position saw its profit evaporate after the release of a trading update, after which the stock fell just over 7%. However, this drop did not invalidate the trend, nor did it hit my stop. As a result I continue to hold the position. Of course, that may change tomorrow...

New testimonial

I received the testimonial below yesterday from Rob, who has applied himself over the last year and ended up with a positive result. This has been achieved while being extremely cautious in his approach and level of exposure, and new to the trend following approach. Sometime less is more...:

"August 2014 marks the end of my years mentoring from Steve. I’m happy to say that I have ended the year in profit. Look at a chart for the FTSE 100 for the period Aug 2013-Aug 14 and you’ll see its not been a great year for following the trend. Profits for the period are only small but profits they are. I’m sure that without the guidance Steve has provided via the mentoring programme over the last 12 months things would be looking a little more grim for my trading account.

The charts tell you what you allow them to tell you

I was having a long conversation the other night with an aspiring trend follower, about how I go about selecting the stocks I want to trade, and how it maybe differs from more 'traditional' trend followers.

If you trade a small basket of futures markets (like the Turtles) then, providing you are not 'fully loaded' in your existing positions, you were instructed to take all signals given, as not taking a signal could mean missing out on the most profitable trade of the year.

Yes, it is really does take only a few minutes a day

Edit: This post has been updated to reflect the use of the new watchlist scans, which identify potential set ups before they trigger. The old scans required you to watch the scans as they updated in real-time, otherwise you may miss an entry signal.

People that I give training to, who are new to trend following, are constantly surprised with the statement that I can spend less than 10 minutes a day trading the markets. The routine is very simple:

• By configuring my scans the way I want them, I can simply click a button and these give me an immediate list of potential stock candidates that meet the criteria programmed into the scan code;
• From there I go down the list generated, looking at the chart of each stock;
• Years of experience looking at the set ups that I know work means that I can tell within 5 seconds if a stock is of interest to me;
• If it is, one click of a button and its added to a watchlist - if it's not, I move on to the next one on the list. 

Once I've gone through all the scans (which cover longs and shorts, in different countries) I go to my trading platform, key in those stocks and look to see what the bid/ask spread is like, together with any restrictions on trading that stock. If the stock satisfies my criteria, I will either place an order at the market if it reaches my trigger price, or place an order to open at the desired level (as well as my initial stop) there and then. Job done.

As for my existing positions, I simply observe the charts and see if my stops need updating (they are only ever moved towards current price). Again, this takes a couple of minutes.

Then, in theory I could switch the trading platform off, and close the charts. With the watchlist scans you can go through these in the evenings, after themarkets have closed, and update your lists ahead of the next trading session. The scans update in real time, so you can do this as many times you want, but that is my preference.

Once the trainees in the mentoring programme who I meet have watched me go through the above, see what I look for, and how the charts and scans (as well as the system rules themselves) eliminate the need for a lot of  'interpretation', they begin to understand how I can spend so little time actually 'trading'. Over time, people can learn how to do the same - if I can do it, then so can anybody else.

If you have read Market Wizards, you will see a similar routine in Ed Seykota's interview (conducted over 20 years ago). He simply gets his end of day data, and places his orders ready for the next day. And then switches his PC off. Bill Dunn, profiled in Trend Following, has something similar, a single PC sounds an alarm when a signal is given - that's the only time his operation goes into the market. If you read the story of the Turtles, they spent most of the day reading the paper or playing table tennis.

For those who want to participate in the markets, and who may have other commitments or full-time employment, this sort of apporach is ideal. If however sitting in front of a PC for hours staring at charts, and wanting 'action' is your idea of trading, then trend following is not for you.