"Saturday Seminars" - Trading the Pankin Strategy for 30% Annual Gains & Low Risk

Could you use a purely mechanical timing formula that has produced 30 percent gains a year since 1986 with strictly controlled risk? Nelson teaches you everything you need to trade the Pankin Sector Fund Strategy for exceptional profits and reduced risk. The Pankin Strategy trades Fidelity Select sector funds. Sector funds tend to trend more consistently than individual stocks or commodities and produce unusually reliable trading patterns. If you had traded this simple yet powerful system over the past twelve years, you would have outperformed 99 percent of all CTAs. The Pankin Strategy takes just a few minutes each week to update, uses straightforward logic and works for virtually any size account.

The Pankin Strategy has a superb hypothetical track record — 35 percent annual gains since 1986 (real-time performance has been just as strong). However, the original strategy requires withstanding drawdowns most individual traders find unacceptable. Money manager Mark Pankin, developer of the system, posted returns of 57 percent in 1995 and 45 percent in 1996 but the drawdowns sometimes represented as much as 25 percent of total equity.

To better gauge the risk, Nelson tests the Pankin Strategy over a wider range of market conditions. In this workshop, he simulates Pankin trading back to 1970 (considerably longer than the Fidelity Select sector funds have actually been traded). You will see that the original strategy would have generated reassuringly strong profits throughout the past twenty-eight years but with frequent and often punishing equity drawdowns (the maximum equity dip would have been an unacceptable 45 percent).

To help curb the risk, Nelson introduces you to a variety of defensive tactics he uses along with the original Pankin Strategy. As he adds risk-control measures, you will observe a powerful trading system unfold. To insure that the evolving system is theoretically sound, he tests the findings across multiple portfolios, time frames and signals. The resulting variant of the Pankin Strategy has gained 30 percent a year since 1986 with just 12 percent drawdown!

Central to this final comprehensive trading system is a filter Nelson uses to confirm Pankin signals. He demonstrates how this indicator is almost certain to capture every major stock market trend. With this and other defensive measures, you will trade the Pankin Strategy more confidently to achieve aggressive profits with limited risk.

Building a Mechanical Trading System from the Ground Up (1996).

Testing is a critical area often neglected by technicians and traders. Nelson clearly demonstrates the ease with which testing can be performed given today’s sophisticated workstations and high-performance computers. The testing power that these tools provide is now readily accessible to all traders and managers.

Nelson describes the process of building a mechanical trading system, providing concrete examples of high-return/low-risk strategies for a range of markets. Nelson also shares his favorite high-performance trading systems tested on TradeStationTM. The code (which is given to you) and methods Nelson uses are clearly stated and can be translated for use with many other popular software systems.

Nelson FreeburgNelson Freeburg is editor of Formula Research, a monthly financial letter that builds systematic timing models for the futures, fixed income, cash, and stock markets. Nelson took up trading while pursuing a Ph.D. at Columbia University. Totally absorbed by the financial markets, Nelson left academia. He decided to let the markets, rather than the university, provide his education. He began publishing Formula Research in 1991 in order to share his findings with a small nucleus of professional traders. Today, Formula Research serves hundreds of money managers and serious researchers in the cash and futures markets. Nelson’s subscribers include many of the leading names in global trading and finance. Nelson initially confined his research and trading to chart signals. When overall results proved poor, he began to examine point and figure, Elliott Wave, Market Profile, candlestick analysis, and an assortment of other technical theories. Nelson considers all of these methods deficient in their application because of their reliance on subjective judgement. In particular, Nelson feels that chart patterns become elusive in fast-paced, highly leveraged markets (such as cash foreign exchange) and that the clear buy and sell signals illustrated in textbooks rarely appear as clearly and reliably in practice. To address these shortcomings, Nelson began testing the theories of leading technicians as well as his own theories against an extensive historical database covering a broad variety of traded market items. Nelson uses the financial database he built, which reaches back into the last century, to test systems in which he can examine clearly defined and precise mechanical buy and sell signals, devoid of subjectivity. Using these objective standards, Nelson can rigorously evaluate complex system features. Additional rules, such as the user’s profit targets and stop orders, or mental stop points, can further strengthen this testing process. As a result of his research, Nelson has developed an impressive number of advanced trading systems.

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Saturday Seminars are just a taste of the power of INO TV. The web's only online video and audio library for trading education. So watch four videos in our free version of INO TV click here.

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A dead Italian, an ex-NASDAQ chief, and a missing $50 billion.

A dead Italian, an ex-NASDAQ chief, and a missing $50 billion.

In 1949, Charles Ponzi died in Italy. Ponzi died in poverty, so he probably never fathomed that his name would live on forever in the investment world. Here we are, almost 60 years later and we are just beginning to uncover one of the biggest Ponzi schemes of all time.

Anyone in the investment industry knows that you cannot guarantee consistent returns of 10% to 12% year after year without undertaking a fair level of risk. These are the kinds of returns that Bernard L. Madoff was offering to investors. As a former chairman of the NASDAQ with over 50 years of Wall Street experience under this belt, Madoff had some impressive credentials. However, his investment program has turned out to be the biggest Ponzi scheme on record. It's funny that this unethical investment practice wasn't even uncovered by the SEC, but instead by the sons of Madoff himself.

It always amazes me that with all the investment industry regulation, a scheme of this proportion can go on for years without the SEC catching on. The SEC had multiple reports to check this guy out, but failed to do so in a timely manner. The question becomes, do we need any regulation if the regulators fail to regulate?

For those of you who don't know how a Ponzi scheme works, you can read all about here But basically it works like this: The first investor will be paid a nice return (at the rate or higher than what was promised). Once the first investor gets his money back, they tell a friend to invest money and those investors get their return from the next set of investors and so on and so forth. Little or no money ever goes into the market for trading or investing. It works up until a point and that is when there is no new money coming in. At that point, the Ponzi scheme collapses and either the organizer of the Ponzi scheme escapes on a long international trip, or they go to jail. For Bernie Madoff it looks like he's going on a trip alright, a trip to jail!

The Ponzi scheme can never work for an extended amount of time, because mathematically you run out of new investors and money. This was the case for Bernard Madoff. When the market made a downturn, Madoff did not have enough replacement funds to hush concerned investors who were eager to take back their initial investment. Eventually, the pressure became too much for Madoff when he blurted out to his two sons that his money management operations were "all just one big lie" and "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme."

Madoff is the founder of the market-making firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC, which he launched in 1960. His separate investment advisory business had $17.1 billion of assets under management. Many investors and several hedge funds have exposure by investing through Madoff's investment advisory business.

Walter Noel's, Fairfield Greenwich Group (worth $7.3 billion) and Kingate Management's, Kingate Global Fund (worth $2.8 billion) were the two most prominate hedge funds that invested with Madoff.

There has been rumors circulating throughout the years of how Madoff was making this money. I don't believe that anyone every flat-out-said that he was running a Ponzi scheme, but there were always whispers of doubt as to the legitimacy of his practice. Some argued that he was front running customer orders so he was virtually guaranteed no losses. This has yet to be proven.

Unfortunately, his family's name will be forever tied to this Ponzi scheme. What is really unfortunate is that thousands of people lost fortunes trusting Madoff.

So what is the take away from all of this is? In a nutshell, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

As I am writing this around noon (EST), the price of gold is higher for the week and indices are all lower for the week. This tells you yet again, that gold seems to be a better bet than stocks right now.

Enjoy the weekend,

Adam Hewison
President, INO.com
Co-creator, MarketClub

Do Not Try To Make All Your Market Money At The End of December

In a few days we will be officially entering into the silly season. Most people think of this time of year as the holiday season, but for many investors it tends to be the silly season.

If you haven't made your money in the market already this year do not try to make in the last two weeks of December. This is when the markets are at their most volatile (hard to believe after what we have been through lately) and are trading at their thinnest volumes for the year.

We had a signal on Monday to cover our short DOW position. This turned out to be a nice trade as we had been short the DOW for quite some time. This exit the DOW position came exactly at the right time of the year as we choose to sit out the rest of the year.

Don't misunderstand, covering a short position on the DOW does not change our view of the overall trend for the market. What it is saying is that the market has reached a neutrality between buyers and sellers and has stopped going down.

We would not be surprised to see the market's downtrend resume in 2009, as it appears that there are still a great many challenges ahead for the country and the economy.

If you have the time, please watch this short video I produced to show you the exact signals which told our members when to enter and exit the DOW.

It will give you a better understanding of how the markets work and how you can use our "Trade Triangle" technology in the New Year to make profits.

Enjoy the video,

Adam Hewison
President, INO.com
Co-creator, MarketClub

Can an egg timer improve your trading?

True Story

When I started my career in this great business in the early seventies, I worked under a guy named Gary who  acted as a mentor to me.

Now Gary was definitely a character and his trading style was something else altogether.

Every time he made a trade he would flip an egg timer over and the sand would start running.

Now you have to remember, I was green to trading back then and had never seen someone with Gary's unique approach and trading style.  I just thought that having an egg timer on your desk and flipping it over every time you made a trade was a normal part of trading.

Have you figured out why Gary was using a egg timer?

Was it because ...

(A) He liked playing with egg timers
(B) He liked to time his poached eggs
(C) He used it for money management

If you chose (C) you are correct. Gary did use an egg timer for money management. It's not as crazy as you might think and it suited Gary's own style of trading perfectly.

You see Gary was using a TIME STOP.

How it worked is like this, Gary would see something on his intra-day charts that was a buy, and then buy it immediately. If it did not go up by the time the sand had finished running through his egg timer he would exit the market win, lose or draw. It was just that simple.

I never had the type of trading personality to trade like Gary, but I have to admit the egg timer worked.

You may want to give it a try only substitute the egg timer and use days or weeks as your time frame.

Adam Hewison
Co-founder, MarketClub.com

P.S. If you missed any of the "Traders Whiteboard" series watch them here.


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Traders Toolbox: Candlestick Formations

Japanese candlesticks, which have been enjoying the spotlight in recent years, are difficult to explain in one broad brush. Candlesticks draw on the same open-high-low-close data as do bars. Here the length of the bar, or "candle," is determined by the high and low, but the area between the open and close is considered the most important.

This area, the "body" of the candle, is filled with blue (or white for most charting programs) for closes higher than open, and is filled with red (or black from most charting programs) for down days. The wicks above and below constitute the "shadow" of the candle, or high or low.

No pattern is 100% correct, but these formations are often time incorporated into many mechanical systems and can provide as great information source for the naked eye.

*Change to hammer and hanging man made on 12-10-08.

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Doji - When the open and close price is almost the exact same value and the tails are not excessively long. This formation can alert investors of a possible indecision and during oversold or overbought conditions can possibly signal for reversal. The bulls and bears are equally pushing the price.

Long-Legged Doji - You can recognize this formation by one or two long tails (shadows). This formation will sometimes alert that we have reached the top of the market or warn that the trend has lost sense of direction.

Gravestone Doji - This formation occurs when the open and close price is the same or near the low of the bar (period). Although this can be found at the bottom of a trend, this formation can be used to pick out market tops.

Hanging Man - This formation looks like a body with feet dangling... or a hanging man. This occurs when there is profit taking near market open, then a rally with a close at or near the open price.  This formation can alert of a reversal and is typically found at the top of an up-trend. The longer the shadow, the greater the change is for a reversal.

Hammer - This formation is a short body with a tail that is twice the body's length. This occurs when there is a sell off near open, but then a rally supports a close at or near the open. This formation can alert of a reversal and is typically found at the bottom of a downtrend. The longer the shadow, the greater the changes are of reversal.

Spinning Top - This short body has sizable tables both on the top and bottom of the bar. This formation often times represents indecision and a standoff among the bears and bulls. There is little movement between the open and close, but both the bears and the bulls were active that trading day. After a long blue candlestick, a spinning top suggests weakness among the bulls. After a long red candlestick, a spinning top suggests weakness among the bears.

Bearish Engulfing Pattern - This formation is a major reversal pattern after the completion of an uptrend. After a blue candlestick, the next day will open above the previous day's positive close, throughout the trading day it will blow past the previous days open completely engulfing the previous day's movement.

Bullish Engulfing Pattern - This formation is a major reversal pattern after the completion of a downtrend. After a red candlestick, the next day will open below the previous day's negative close, throughout the trading day it will blow past the previous days open completely engulfing the previous day's movement.

Evening Star - This is a top reversal signal suggesting that prices will go lower. It is formed after an obvious uptrend. The 1st candlestick is a long blue box (usually when the confidence had peaked). This stick is followed by a small blue body, when the trading range for the day has remained small. The third bar (red) plows down at least 50% past the 1st day's bar signifying that the bears have taken control.

Morning Star - This is a bottom reversal signal suggesting that prices will go higher. It is formed after an obvious downtrend. The 1st candlestick is a long red box followed by a small blue box, when the trading range for the day has remained small. The third bar (blue) shoots up at least 50% over the 1st day's bar signifying that the bulls have taken control.

Dark Cloud Cover - This is a two bar formation that is found at the end of an upturn or at a congested trading area. The first bar is a blue (positive movement) bar followed by a red bar which reaches over the open of the previous days close and closes at least 50% down the previous days bar.

Piercing Pattern - This is a two bar formation that is found at the end of a declining market. The first bar is a red (declining movement) bar followed by a blue bar which opens (often gaps) below the previous days close and reaches at least 50% of the previous days bar.

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You can learn more about Candlestick formations by visiting INO TV.