Current market conditions
Over the past few months Australian traders and investors have witnessed a divergence between the All Ords and the Dow Jones Index. Whilst this ‘de-coupling’ has been going on for some time with the USA indices rising by more than the ALL-ORDS, only recently has it had a negative impact on Australian sharemarket investors. The […]
Human decision making
To function and exist in society, we as human beings operate under a social paradigm or level of social conditioning that allows this to occur relatively smoothly for the vast majority. As traders and active investors in the markets however, these same paradigms can often be detrimental to our success and profitability. The decisions we […]
Tiger Woods and the GFC
I read an interesting article in the New York Times recently on the rise and fall of Tiger Woods and comparing this with the rise and fall of certain sections of the financial industry in relation to the Global Financial Crisis. Much is often made of the similarities between the psychological aspects of sport and […]
Has anything changed?
Please let me start this Blog topic by declaring that by no means am I a qualified economist. But I feel compelled to add my two cents worth on a recent email doing the rounds that originated from Ross Greenwood. The numbers and statistics quoted in the email below are staggering and you have to […]
Having an exit strategy
Whilst the vast majority of share investors, educators, analysts and commentators concentrate on entry signals – when to buy stocks – almost to the point of obsession, fewer still are prepared to discuss appropriate exit strategies. Exit strategies are vitally important to acheive success as an active share market investor. Without an appropriate strategy to […]
The bottlenose dolphin and its edge
This week we take a light-hearted yet serious look at what it means to have an ‘edge’. In the natural world animals develop skills and characteristics that allow them to prosper and survive often under strange and adverse conditions. This process of evolution gives those that develop these skills a survival advantage over those that […]
Designing a trading methodology – Part 8 – A brief recap
Over the past 7 weeks we have had a detailed look at the steps and processes involved in trading system design and development. Briefly recapping, these steps are:- Step 1 – Developing a Traders Mindset, and accepting that losses are just a part of the business. Step 2 – Identifying the tools and resources needed […]
Designing a trading methodology – Part 7 Degrees of freedom and optimisation
In this week’s posting I would like to explore in more detail the concepts of degrees of freedom and optimisation and the impact these two variables can have on the development and outcomes of a trading system. Degrees of freedom in a trading system relates to the number of criteria that are used to filter […]
Designing a trading methodology – Part 6 A winning trading system
Having worked through the processes to either develop and test your own trading system or perform detailed due diligence on a commercially available trading system using the steps discussed over the past weeks, this week we will look at what constitutes a winning trading system. A winning trading system will give you a profitable ‘edge’ […]
Designing a trading methodology – Part 5 Back testing your edge
Having researched and designed your trading system by working through the steps we have discussed so far it is now time to back-test your ideas to see if the system ‘works. Research is conducted via back-testing concepts against available historical data. This is where your programming skills are required, unless you wish to conduct your […]