Strategies that Give you an Edge !
There’s a phrase that often comes up in discussion on all trading forums, ‘the Holy Grail’. Rather than referring to King Arthur and the quest of his knights, it means, the trading strategy that provides such high odds of profit, that success as a trader is finally guaranteed. When this phrase is used it usually infers naivety on the part of the trader. That is, in the real world there is no trading edge for the retail trader, money is only made by the institutional insiders who can move the markets as they wish.
In this post and others to come I’ll reference this topic of a trading edge and mention which strategies I think are most likely to lead to trading profitability. The suggestions will not represent my special expertise but rather my opinion on who the experts are, and what bits of trading genius they’ve perfected.
One great place to begin your search for the ideal strategy that matches your temperament, is to read Jack Schwager’s ‘Market Wizards’ series. His interviews with successful traders, called the ‘market wizards’, provide fascinating insights into how the minds of truly successful traders work. You will find links to his books in the right column on this site.
Other traders whose trading strategies stand the test of allowing non-professionals to trade profitably are listed below. Information on their advisory services or web resources is posted elsewhere on this site under ‘Advisory Services’ or ‘Trading Education’.
Top Gun Options – Matthew ‘Whiz’ Buckley provides options training and several levels of trade signals using options. His success is phenomenal!
Three Triggers Option Trading – Chuck Hughes has won world championships in options trading several times and his strategy for picking stocks which have a high percentage change of positive movement over a couple weeks. He provides training as well as very specific weekly trading signals.
Market Tamer – Ron Haydt posts daily analysis of the general U.S. market as well as very specific trading recommendations for using basic options strategies on specific stocks. Video Tutorials are provided.
Market Trend Signals – Provides a daily market update using their combination of proprietary indicators. The free daily emails complement the paid subscription tools that allow daily scanning of stocks and indexes. I’ve subscribed to their service and found both the long term and short term signals accurate. Both stocks and ETF’s are tracked and one can trade the signals by simply buying, or selling short, the shares, or, use by using options. Generated signals can be used for long term investing, and short term trading. The annual subscription is very inexpensive.
Portfolio Boss – Dan Murphy has worked with programmers and super-computers for over a decade to create the ultimate that allows you to legally spy on the market movers with his ‘Smart Money Indicator’. His cloud computing resources support pre-tested strategies and, allows for you to build and back-test your own. The results over time is amazing and allows for portfolio management that turns major market downturns into small ‘speed-bumps’.
Marketwise Ichimoku Short-Term – The founder of Marketwisetrader, Lon Kaufmann (AKA ‘Jesse Livermore’), tracks indexes like the SPY/SPX/ES using the classic Ichimoku signals with a proprietary combination of indicators. The trade signals given can be used for the short term buying or selling of the indexes, or, used to setup option trades using Weekly options. Currently this is a work-in-progress so site members are welcome to observe. It is strongly reccomended that these signals only be paper-traded until an understanding of, and confidence in, the methods is established.
