A Visit to Traders Expo, from Henrik Andersson
Traders Expo was held this past weekend in NYC. The exhibit was filled with vendors and traders. Seminar topics ranged from 'Basic Momentum Principles' to 'High Probability Pivot Systems for Swing Traders' to 'Candlestick Essentials and Beyond: Catching the Next Move.' In general, there was a strong bias towards finding the next trend and locating breakouts. Much emphasis is on risk management, as if your strategy doesn't matter as long as you have a good risk management system in place. Stop-loss is of course the central theme in all these techniques.
One vendor received much attention, VectorVest. They challenged the audience to pick any starting date over the last 10 years and their system would beat any given benchmark over the period up till today. You can apparently buy this system, which must be classified as the Holy Grail of investing, for the price of $9.95! Should one laugh or cry?
Maybe the savior for the scientific minded investor is the sentiment at Traders Expo, since it seems like ballyhoo investing still very much is the mainstream.