Better System Trader

Today, we’re going to have a quick chat about the effectiveness of entries, and a simple technique you can use to determine how good an entry or exit really is. I’ve been working on some breakout strategies lately and I’ve noticed in some of them that the entry really isn’t that important at all… That is, I can be pretty loose with the entry values and get similar results… So there are other components to the strategy that are actually driving the performance. Now, this got me thinking about measuring the effectiveness of entries and exits, so today I want to share a technique that Kevin Davey calls the “monkey test”. And no, you don’t need actual monkeys for this! Let’s hear how Kevin uses the monkey test to check how good his entries and exits really are.   Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

Glad you could join us today where we get to chat with Stefano Serafini – the current leader of the World Cup Championship of Futures Trading®* I met Stefano in New York at a trading masterclass a few years back and he’s been doing some great things with his trading. As I mentioned, he’s the current leader of the World Cup Championship of Futures Trading®* Sometimes in these trading competitions you see traders rocket to the top of the leaderboard really quickly, but they usually disappear just as quick. Anyone who’s been watching the competition this year would have noticed that Stefano has been pretty consistent so far, so we’re going to discuss his trading approach, especially around intraday trading strategies and portfolio construction. In our chat you will learn: How to use filtering on higher timeframes to produce higher quality intraday trades, How ‘time windows’ can improve trading results and what to look for, How to combine multiple strategies into a portfolio and then manage it to keep the portfolio fresh and performing optimally, A common mistake traders make with correlations that could give false results and how to overcome it.   Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

As systematic and algorithmic traders, we have a number of tools and processes we can use to test and validate trading strategies. For example, in-sample/out-of-sample testing, walk forward analysis, cluster analysis and a bunch more. (And don’t forget all the fancy named techniques that have been lumped in with Machine Learning that are sometimes just rebadged techniques that have been around for ages already!) Anyway, one of the tools that we have at our disposal is Monte Carlo analysis. When you’re using a tool it can be good to understand how it works... What are it’s strengths? What are it’s weakness? Today I’m going to share with you a little bit of audio from Dave Walton of Statistrade, explaining the benefits of Money Carlo analysis, and also a few of the weakness or false assumptions around Monte Carlo analysis that we really need to be aware of if we want to manage Monte Carlo effectively. Let’s take a listen to what Dave has for us.   Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

T Today I want to share with you one of my favourite Seinfeld episodes ever. It’s the episode where George Costanza realises that all of the decisions and actions he’s taken throughout his life have been the wrong ones. So he decides to do everything the opposite. He’s in the diner with Jerry and Elaine and he sees an attractive woman sitting up at the counter who seems to be interested in what he’s doing, glancing over at him. Instead of sitting back and doing nothing about it he does the opposite... He approaches the lady, announces that he’s a short, bald, unemployed man who still lives with his parents, and... She immediately goes out with him! Later on, he gets an interview for a job with the New York Yankees and during the interview he gets an opportunity to meet the owner. Instead of sucking up to the owner, he does the opposite and tells him how much the team sucks, how he’s done a poor job managing it, making stupid decisions etc, and... The owner immediately hires him! Every time George does the opposite of what he would usually do, it works out well. He succeeds. And guess what? It can sometimes be the same with trading too... Listen to find out how.   Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

The markets are in a constant state of adaptation. Conditions change. Strategies fall in and out of sync with the market, causing periods of good and poor performance. So what can we do to improve consistency by making our systems adapt better to changes in market conditions? Our guest for this episode, Brian Miller, is from Optimized Trading, and in our chat he shares with us: Why implementing adaptability into strategy design is so important and some techniques you can use to create adaptive systems today, Why market classification needs to be considered and the types of approaches you can use to classify the market, How to pursue a multi-model structure that adjusts dynamically to changing market conditions, Plus much more. Note: This is the 1st part of 2 recordings, look out for the 2nd part coming soon!   Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

Over the last few months you may have noticed an increase in the number of articles being published on the internet using Market Breadth to predict which way the stock markets could go next. In fact, I saw one just recently that said the US stock market is set for a parabolic move. Now, as systematic traders I'm sure most of us are not really interested in predicting those types of things... However Market Breadth measures can provide us with additional insights into the underlying conditions in the market that aren’t so obvious looking at a price chart. So today I want to share with you some Market Breadth knowledge from Greg Morris, who oversaw the management of over 5.5 billion dollars. Take a few minutes now to hear from Greg about Market Breadth and what it can reveal about the underlying conditions in the markets.   Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

"I think most traders use canned indicators like a stochastic or RSI or MACD, with a fixed length without thinking much about them." - John Ehlers They take the default length, or one that performed well in a backtest, or even one that has been recommended by someone else, and they start trading with it. They may have a good run for a while... And then it falls apart for no explainable reason... The basic problem is that market conditions change, but indicators are fixed and don't adjust to changes in market activity. So how can we make our indicators more adaptive to market conditions? Take a listen as John Ehlers explains a technique we can use to build indicators that adapt to market conditions and also shares a simple trick to check if our indicators are in-tune with the markets or not.   Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

I have to admit… I’m a bit of a sceptic. However, I’ve had so many people recommend meditation to me in the past. Successful people. People I have a lot of respect for. In fact, some of the previous podcast guests, some big names, have shared with me how powerful meditation has been for them, both personally and for their trading. But it’s not just traders, many successful business people swear by it too. So, what’s all the fuss about? I’m always on the lookout for anything extra that can give us an edge in the markets, so could meditation be something us traders can harness to our benefit? Or is it all just some weird mumbo jumbo sham? Well it’s time to find out, so in this episode I speak to Adam Grimes about meditation and trading, including: What is meditation, and does it actually work? What are the benefits and drawbacks of meditation and can it help traders become better? How to get started and what to expect. This is only a short episode, so even if you’re a sceptic like me and think this may have nothing to do with trading, I recommend you take a listen anyway. Try to approach it with an open mind and form your own opinion from there, so let’s jump over to our chat with Adam Grimes .   Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

Today I want to share an optimization insight from Perry Kaufman. I was reading an article on a trading website and the author was making some assumptions based on the optimization results which may not have been entirely accurate. I think alot of traders can get caught up making this same assumption... I know I definitely have... And it's good to be reminded of these types of things so we don't make the same mistakes. Listen to Perry explaining what this assumption is, the danger in making it and how to overcome it.   Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

A few years back I was on a holiday with friends at Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays. We were cruising around the island in a golf buggy when a friend suggests we go to the shooting range. I'd never even touched a gun before but while we were there I decided to shoot a .44 Magnum... 'the most powerful handgun in the world' according to Dirty Harry! Take a listen to hear what happens next and how it applies to trading.   Disclaimer: Trading in the financial markets involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. All content produced by Better System Trader is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute trading or investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.