Did Altucher fail as a trader?

Quote from traderchi128:

I did read your book about trading like a hedge fund yrs ago. I actually did like it. I thought there were some very good ideas in it. But this latest rant about no traders make money..TA is bs....NOTHING WORKS....well....it sounds like you are a whining failed trader. You obviously can't make money trading anymore so move on.

Your list of the only people who make money, while a good part of them do, it's just the same old bs I hear from people who are either losing money trading or have had their strategies go south and they don't want to adjust to new conditions.

I started trading in 1990....have heard the same nonsense for over 20 yrs. It's weak man. The same insiders,buy and hold,congressmen, and fund mgrs collecting fees were all there back then. Nothing new.

Actually, sounds like you didn't read my article. No big deal. it's just funny to me how many people insist on trashing me without reading the article or knowing the facts and they feel the need to do it right here.
 
Quote from Vishnu:

No big deal. it's just funny to me how many people insist on trashing me without reading the article or knowing the facts and they feel the need to do it right here.

True!I apologize for myself and everyone.Here is the platform to be:

brahma-bhutah prasannatma
na shocati na kankshati
samah sarveshu bhuteshu
mad-bhaktim labhate param
[Bg. 18.54]
 
Quote from Vishnu:

Actually, sounds like you didn't read my article. No big deal. it's just funny to me how many people insist on trashing me without reading the article or knowing the facts and they feel the need to do it right here.

You disappoint me. Too bad. Good luck with you blog, I am sure you will find a way to make a lot of money out of it.
 
Quote from Vishnu:

I think you guys, for some reason, feel very threatened by my article, hence the need to insult me, try to justify your findings by lying about me, try to poke holes in my argument, etc. its like a psychological thing: many of you have made the life choice to be a trader and I am calling that life choice into question.

So like dogs backed into a corner you feel the need to respond. I get it. Good for you.

But if you read my article carefully you see I do identify at least six types of peoplewho make money in the markets:

The 5 I list plus one more category: using public info on microcaps as if it were private info.

Can you make money in the long run using charts, TA, etc: No. Nobody has ever done, nobody ever will. And with more computers in the game than ever, it will become even more impossible.

But I do think you can make money if you find what information is out there that has the characteristics of inside information but is, in fact, public. For instance, I was in a meeting the other day with a $100 million hedge fund that has computers scour FDA filings the second they appear and they have statistically built models to test how these filings will effect stocks.

That's what you are up against. I asked these guys if they would ever use charts: all the guys were from successful quant hedge funds. They laughed and said of course not.

I go and speak at all these trading seminars. I'm not selling books, tapes, newsletters. I go because its a vacation. I'm not raising money. I have no agenda. I am just trying to help people who are being robbed every day.

But I see al the other guys there: selling "trading systems" , newsletters, oscillators, etc. its all BS. The entire prop trading daytrading ecosystem is BS. I've spoken to thousands of traders. I've been a successful trader and an entrepreneur. I've done due diligence on probably a 1000 hedge funds.

Take my advice: use your intelligence to start a good business. Don't fall down the black hole of trading.



Generally, I'm not a fan of your blog but have read it a couple times for exogenous reasons. I do, however, think that your post, "Who Makes Money on Wall Street" is right on. Cheers!
 
Quote from Vishnu:

Actually, sounds like you didn't read my article. No big deal. it's just funny to me how many people insist on trashing me without reading the article or knowing the facts and they feel the need to do it right here.

No...I read it. You list things that have been around for a long time (except for HFT's). 2nd and 20 mgmt fees has been around....inside info has been around (Ivan Boesky), congressmen getting tips has been around, buy and hold has been around (ask them how they felt in 2008).

Back in the 90's the whiners cried about the specialists screwing them...now they cry about HFT. Traders either adapt or move onto something else. But honestly the characteristics of good traders has always been the same...discipline,hard work,discipline,keeping emotions in check,discipline, excellent risk mgmt,discipline, ability to adapt to changes.

You wonder why people are critical of you with this piece? Well...you come off as someone making excuses and whining.....and add in the fact you are bragging about the people you know. Makes for an easy target.
 
Guys if you have the time to read altucher's blog or whatever why don't you come and read mine?

By: Alex Cho with Fitrade

Quote from: Credit Suisse
The ECB provided another substantial liquidity injection to the financial system in the euro area. The second 3-year LTRO (long-term refinancing operation) provided a total of nearly €530bn in fixed rate funding, slightly above the consensus median expectation of €450bn. No further 3-year funding operations have been announced but we would not exclude them if events on the economic and/or political front turn more sour again. (end quote)

The recent decline in the EUR/USD pair has everything to do with LTRO. As the ECB accumulates a total of 3.1T Euros in European Debt on its balance sheet. Which means that 3.1T Euros have been “created”, or to be more accurate. The ECB issued more currency, and bought bond notes from the secondary market in order to inflate bond values, drop interest rates, while reducing the supply of bonds on the secondary markets. Forcing large institutions to invest in other assets that have equivalent scale like the stock market, or chase other high yielding assets like foreign treasury bonds with lower credit ratings.

The theme is that both the federal reserve and ECB have halted their rapid issuance of currency. Because both forms of policy easing is over in both the USA and Europe. We have to compare the current Federal reserve rate to the ECB rate to determine who’s inflating the economy faster.

From: Global-Rates
ECB Interest Rates Over Previous Year

Currently the ECB has a 1% interest rate which is less inflationary than what the Federal Reserve has opted for in terms of interest rate policy.

From: Global-Rates
Federal Reserve Interest Rates Over Previous Year

Currently the Federal reserve has a .25% interest rate. So going forward the US economy is going to inflate at a faster rate, which should, and actually has lead to the reversal in the EUR/USD pair.

EUR/USD has recovered after I highlighted the pivot point on the chart in my previous blog post, and I believe the EUR/USD will continue to go higher based on the comparative interest rate structure between the two economic zones.

The downside is that the EUR/USD falls lower on tail risk which would lead to another round of LTRO, or if economic growth were to miss expectations leading to ECB interest rate cuts. Any mix of negative data from Europe in other words, will promptly reverse the positive trend in the EUR/USD.
 
Quote from Vishnu:

I think you guys, for some reason, feel very threatened by my article, hence the need to insult me, try to justify your findings by lying about me, try to poke holes in my argument, etc. its like a psychological thing: many of you have made the life choice to be a trader and I am calling that life choice into question.

So like dogs backed into a corner you feel the need to respond. I get it. Good for you.

But if you read my article carefully you see I do identify at least six types of peoplewho make money in the markets:

The 5 I list plus one more category: using public info on microcaps as if it were private info.

Can you make money in the long run using charts, TA, etc: No. Nobody has ever done, nobody ever will. And with more computers in the game than ever, it will become even more impossible.

But I do think you can make money if you find what information is out there that has the characteristics of inside information but is, in fact, public. For instance, I was in a meeting the other day with a $100 million hedge fund that has computers scour FDA filings the second they appear and they have statistically built models to test how these filings will effect stocks.

That's what you are up against. I asked these guys if they would ever use charts: all the guys were from successful quant hedge funds. They laughed and said of course not.

I go and speak at all these trading seminars. I'm not selling books, tapes, newsletters. I go because its a vacation. I'm not raising money. I have no agenda. I am just trying to help people who are being robbed every day.

But I see al the other guys there: selling "trading systems" , newsletters, oscillators, etc. its all BS. The entire prop trading daytrading ecosystem is BS. I've spoken to thousands of traders. I've been a successful trader and an entrepreneur. I've done due diligence on probably a 1000 hedge funds.

Take my advice: use your intelligence to start a good business. Don't fall down the black hole of trading.


Its this sentence that people are disagreeing with:

"Can you make money in the long run using charts, TA, etc: No. Nobody has ever done, nobody ever will. And with more computers in the game than ever, it will become even more impossible. "

also James you appear to be lumping everyone who disagrees with you into the hater camp. Can you make money in the long run using.......charts, ta, etc. I mean how would one prove/disprove this statement. Your anecdote about some hedgies doesn't prove anything to me. Lots of smart people have had their asses handed to them by the mkt. :)
 
You could easily make money off of charts in the past.
I did and my returns were very consistent in up and down markets.
Electronic futures and decimals allowed computers to replace what the guys in the office and I did. But we did it for years.
 
Quote from Vishnu:
Just for the record to correct some assumptions made on these threads:
... B) most of the systems were also used by me, successfully, to trade for several hedge funds...

"Survivorship bias"?

Were these the only systems you traded for hedge funds?

Or do they represent the pick of the crop (i.e. those systems which did well, as opposed to those that didn't ... )?
 
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