I also went to very expensive seminar of Kent Calhoun and others in the 80's through 2000's, always keeping images of their guarantees in case of the material was not doable in some way. Best to use credit card and easier to get refunds. Some of the better seminars I attended were at Expo's but not from the speakers, traders I would bump into start conversations. There been many seminars that total material was not too great, but if it added a piece of the puzzle I had not yet discovered, was worth it to me.
Am long Crude but hedged, volatility is way too much to add as I prefer to add on deep dips. My very long term Commodities model bottom/top fishes for original positions based on 9 year cycles, so it has to wait for huge retracements then seeks proprietary chart patterns for better entry. It is very often too early, case in point selling Indexes 2 years 10 months ago/hedged, so hedges 98% of the time cover losses, there are times first targets are made to cover the 2% of double losses of underlying and the hedge. Double losses occur when underlining PS occurs then reverses and hedge losses too. There is no system 100%, my style of trading usually makes small overall percentages for 3 years then huge profits when it finds extremes and reversals like this year. Model also adds on positions seeking 75% of 9 year cycle. I have had over 3 dozen trades trying to find highs in Indexes, last one been pretty decent. Model also puts on hedges to secure open profits at proprietary chart patterns when they occur. I found early that trailing stops does not allow for huge profits, so once at breakeven stops, they are adjusted for rollovers but stay at breakeven for years sometimes. My longest trade finding the top has been Eurodollar of seven years which was a Godsend as this forced me to learn how to do spread trading, recently gotten short Eurodollar. Looking back, wished I had taken @bone's course then going it alone.
I look back as my progression as a trader, it been very fun now, been always to "keep at it" when many say it can't be done or too risky. But there is a difference between me trading 401k llc and those who rely on trading for living, just a few times I have relied on trading for a living and found it insanely more stressful, kudos for those who have learned to handle those stresses. At 63yo, still not taken a dime out of my retirement funds, huge difference when you not paid taxes...
Can you if you dont mind give an example of what an effective hedge is, perhaps for myself having traded 13 years i seem to find a hedge is similar to simply having a toned down position without the hedge. Since a hedge always comes at a cost,
"Best to use credit card and easier to get refunds" Couldn't have been said better,
"I have had over 3 dozen trades trying to find highs in Indexes," I too spent well over 5 years always shorting highs and buying bottoms, BUT what i noticed, that even when these trades are successful the pressure is so high, whether you trade systematically or discretionary, because of the gains are all dependent on few trades the amount of dependence is enormous in comparison of trades that make smaller percentages or gains in with more frequent trades, I am a swing trader not day trader at all, and not advocating for it, i imagine like a coach of a soccer team, if you have the expectations that one player needs to score 5 times lets say, the level of pressure is enormous on that one player that again even if achieved too much focus on one player, when the true goal is to score the most, doesnt matter which player scores as long as in the end you got the most scores/goals made. More over if these trades do NOT work and years have passed the time loss is never recoverable. My biggest mistake and learner was GE, i been buying it since it was at 19 bucks. Yet having looked, the swings it made up and down while its in the range if 8 to 13 bucks are MORE of a percentage gain than holding GE even if it goes back to 33