Everyone still working...your path to retirement!

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I just saw a CNBC commercial, and apparently there are stocks that run in "channels", where they keep going to the same lows and same highs, creating a 'channel'. You pay these guys with a web site, and they tell you which ones they are. Then you buy low and sell high!

There was a guy RIGHT THERE on tv retiring early by using this foolproof strategy!

Buy low, sell high, stocks in a channel. Right there in front of our faces all these years!

 

[HFWR]

Are they as good as "the Gorilla"... :

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

You dont see any posts from me about the dang gorilla now, do you?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Funny you should mention it...theres a commercial for gorilla trades.

I was just thinking "thats a really silly commercial" when they hit me with their tag line:

"Silly name but serious trades".

Maybe...you dont put a silly name on the company and dont have to spend your marketing dollars overcoming the bad business decision?

Pretty much the same sort of decision making process that has you create a jobs board and call it "Monster". Yep, i see the connection.

 

[OldAgePensioner]

Or a Hair Salon called Crotch.

 

[Nords]

There was a guy RIGHT THERE on tv retiring early by using this foolproof strategy!

Jim Carrey used to do a Larry-the-Cable-Guy imitation endorsement of this commercial.  He'd say:  "They told me I'd get rich using their system and I could quit my job.  Way-ull, I'm already halfway there-- yesterday I quit my job and now I can't wait to get rich!!"

FWIW, Gary Smith traded his way to his mid-50s ER with tight rising channels.  I remember him putting a huge chunk of his portfolio-- something like 75%-- in junk bonds during 2002-2003.  Worked for him, although he earned every penny of it.  The lifestyle described in his book was an extremely valuable (and cheap) lesson that his type of trading is not for me.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Was his book titled "Really Lucky Bastard" ?

 

[Nords]

Was his book titled "Really Lucky Bastard" ?

Oh, he worked hard for his luck. He's elevated momentum trading into an art form.

His early life was one long series of crappy night jobs to fund his day-trading tuition, followed later in life by many many days of being glued to CNBC with a couple data feeds and making a last-minute blur of trades before the markets closed.  His cojones make brass monkeys look like eunuchs. 

He made the vast majority of his money using no-load mutual funds in an IRA.

 

[Maximillion]

Jim Carrey, another damn Canadian.

 

[Jay_Gatsby]

I think this is the new guy on the stock picking system block:

http://tinyurl.com/l5zrd

 

[azanon]

If these systems work so well, why don't they just get rich with them themselves instead of "selling" their knowledge to us. I'm guessing cause they don't really work, but that's just a guess.

Azanon

 

[justin]

Of course these systems work. No one who buys low and sells high ever goes broke.

(this is sarcasm)

 

[Nords]

Well, if I had to pick one book that works, Smith is it. I've read a lot of the books and this is one of the few where he makes more money working his system than he does talking about it.

But it's a lot of work.

The best insight I gained from his work is that TA indicators can be used when they're working... until they stop working. He uses whatever's working and he doesn't hesitate to move on to another tactic when something, for whatever reason, stops working. It's similar to the realization that different asset classes are correlated... until they're not. I never had that view of a dynamic market before.

He says that he regrets his tour through what he calls "Vendorland" in the '90s and he wouldn't write the book again. He doesn't sell anything. When he posts these days it's mostly at TradersTalk and occasionally FundAlarm. He also loves to pick apart Salil at FundVision, but Salil deserves everything he gets. When Smith writes a post that starts something like "I'm really doing well in...", there's a noticeable surge from the guys jumping on his coattails. If Smith was one of those slimeball data-mining fast-talking salesmen he would've been debunked by now.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Yeah, I have to surgically remove my tongue from my cheek. I made a bunch of money from my former megacorps stock when it was "clearly trading in a 'channel'". Then it stopped without any clear indication of said stoppage and dropped by about a third, then without any additional and should I add responsible indication, it went up 50% after I manically dumped it.

"Systems" are believable in my book when they work for 10 years. Oh yeah, and you make money too.

Never read the guys book...should I put it on my reading list?

 

[Nords]

Never read the guys book...should I put it on my reading list?

I think it's worth it, I enjoyed it. Of course you might even find a library copy within a couple hundred miles of your house.

The book removes a lot of the romance from trading while showing how it takes a special personality to put up with it. In some ways he's more obsessed than Warren Buffett.

Read a couple pages at Amazon's "Look Inside" link and spring for a used paperback copy...

 

[justin]

When Smith writes a post that starts something like "I'm really doing well in...", there's a noticeable surge from the guys jumping on his coattails.

Maybe he's successful because he's a subtle pump-n-dumper.

 

[Eagle43]

You might try this:

http://www.netlibrary.com/Details.aspx