OddBall Systems

I love cars and I have purchased both my wife and myself a pair of new Corvette C6 Z06's. A very good bargain sports car. I was on a long trip on a narrow two lane road following about three cars who were driving way to slow for my personal taste. However I didn't want to pass the cars in particular I just wanted them to go faster. 

I told my wife watch this. I turned on my headlights and proceeded to stick half my car across the double "do not pass" yellow line. I was far enough out so that my headlights (during the day) could bee seen in the side view mirrors of the cars in front of me.

Then I tucked back into formation and waited about 1 minute. The SUV in front of me blasted out across the double yellow line and passed the two cars in front of him. He barely missed the lead car trying to get back in before head on traffic hit him doing this dangerous move.

That pissed off the the lead car and he had to slam on his brakes to let the passing SUV in front of him, and the number two car had to hit his brakes making him mad as well. Now guess what the race was on the SUV took off now he is in the lead and the old slow lead car is hauling ass with the number two car on his tail.

I look down and we all went from 65 in a 70 to 85 in a 70 SWEET! The best part was when my wife says to me BRILLIANT MARK! I was able to drive fast with blockers in front of me and stay way back from them so they didn't throw stones on my car. So do you think the markets can be Psycked out as well?

– Thank You, Mark Brown

I believe there are a few reasons why some make it.

1. They start in a position to not need to make a living from it. The need for steady money like a weekly paycheck will corrupt your thinking and force you to deviate from your plan of action that was so well thought out prior to the heat of the battle.

2. They do not need the money that they loose. The enormous amounts of money that it requires to learn to daytrade would exceed most people's lifetime income. What makes the number of successful daytraders so low is that even the few who could make it, don't have enough capital to endure the learning curve.

3. They do not give a flying _uck about anything or anyones opinions of what the market will or might do. The very news and opinions that surround them becomes the mortar for their brick wall of defense that protects their completely independent thinking.

4. They do not follow the crowd, and there is no pressure on them to conform or perform. One absolutely must not be in a position to be held responsible for anything that you do. Total freedom from both personal and monetary obligations are a MUST, this alone eliminates 99.9%.

5. They have incredible discipline to not buckle under pressure. They have a perfectly clear head and understand fully what they do and how they do it. Battle wounds and memories of defeat are more valuable to them than the money.

6. They do not daytrade with the goal of making money. Quite the opposite, they would be just as happy in any type of intellectual challenge that requires the extraordinary inverted thinking and brilliance required to win at an individualized sport.

Mark Brown

Original post can be found on the Elite Trader Forum

A true Story : The pursuit of the Holy Grail

The X-Files Project began with the agreement of two parties to culminate all their research and ideas, for the purpose of financial gain by trading the markets. Both entities agreed to pursue with all resources the elusive, dependable and consistently profitable, fully automated trading system. There were no cost spared during the project, a very large research fund was set aside to insure the projects completion. In spite of these preparations, funds ran low so additional funds were sought and secured from two sources. One of the sources is no longer associated with the project, having exhausted their available funds. The other party is now a client of the original projects founders.

The project ended two years beyond the estimated time of completion, and at a staggering cost five times the estimated initial proforma. All available and most non-available trading methodologies were extensively researched. The extent of pursuing some of the technology, at times bordered upon criminal espionage. Extensive computer testing as well as real money accounts were used to determine the fact from fiction. Through out the ordeal, many outside sources were employed to work on various pieces of the project, none however having the whole, nor the complete concept. This was done not just for the obvious security reasons but also because this ensured the results of their part of the project was not tainted by some preconceptions.

If one item were to be singled out as the most detrimental to the project, it would have to be that there were preconceived ideas of what a successful trading system should look like. The computer was assumed to be in error, time and time again no matter how successful the per trade profit looked. This assumption of error was perpetuated by the resistance to investigate what the results were showing. The computer modeling did not look and behave as was anticipated by the research team. Following in the footsteps of one of the early pioneers of computer testing and trading. It was realized that the project was closer to completion, than what had been previously thought.

The project completion was being held up because the team refused to allow the computer model to trade the methodology that it found most profitable. In spite of what the research team thought, one area was left not completely researched. That area was the research team themselves ability to allow a computer to do the actual trading. In other words the team needed to ensure that they were profit motivated and not motivated by the need to be traders. Thus the intervention of the pioneer mentioned earlier. He having been in the very same situation years ago when developing his computer model, was gracious enough to share the road map for the human part of the systems evolution.

The main element that was provided to the team was the experience that once you have a methodology that works, you have to let the system do its job. It must become the trader and you a servant of it. After this is accomplished trading actually becomes a rather mundane experience.

What has taken years of research and at one time consumed the space of a large warehouse, has now been reduced to approximately one page of code for use with Omega Research TradeStation. For the participants of the project the road to recovery is at hand. It will take some time to recoup the expenses of the developmental cost. There were many who fell by the wayside during the process and that is just a natural order occurrence. However the monumental task that has been accomplished is now realized to be fact not fiction. During the work, at some time the consensus was that an answer would not be found. However with feverish tenacity the developmental process was pursued. The consensus now is that the answers were always out there somewhere, waiting to be implemented by those willing to take the risk and work hard enough for it.

The End For Now – Thanks to the participants knowingly or not.

People – Rick Parkhurst, Miles Casad, Bruce Collins, Stan Finney, Ed Courson, Ellery Scott, Rick Saidenberg, Peter Aan, Mike Conner, Jim Steadman, Tom Richter, Jean Coats, R.L. Mc Alister, Linda Satterfield, Robert Strittmatter, Brian Shiell, Scott Shiell, Radin Yousefi 

Products – Cray Research, Omega Research, The Math Works, Ned Davis Research, TradeVec

Company's – Smith Barney, First Texas Futures, First American Discount, Advance Futures and Options Group, Moss Capital Management

Universities – The University of Arizona – Department of Astro Physics

Dedication – A Dedication to those Involved in the  X-Files Project 

We Thank You – Rick Parkhurst – Mark Brown

Copywright© 2010 http://www.markbrown.com/

Project Is Now Completely Self Funded

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My daughter had this dog named Pugsley, a homely poor pathetic looking creature whom she rescued from a dog shelter. He was not a pure breed far from it, in fact I think he was half Shih Tzu and half Chihuahua. Anyway what a grateful dog he was that he now had a home. It was funny when we brought him home cause he kept using the bathroom on the concrete sidewalk and he would never get on the grass. We discovered he had never known what grass is and in fact was scared to death of the green stuff. He was one heck of a dog and served my family with love and devotion for around 15 years before passing on.

What I most remember about Pugsley as it relates to trading and the human mind. Is one day I was in the back yard, and having finished a liquid refreshment I threw out the ice cubes onto the grass lawn. Pugsley went nuts running from ice cube to ice cube, he would pick one up with his mouth and chomp on it a bit. Then he would spot another and he would run over to the next ice cube spit out the one he had and then pick up the new find and chomp on it for a bit. He would then look around and see another ice cube and run to it and repeat the frantic cycle of tasting, licking, chomping each and every ice cube. Every time he would chomp an ice cube it would get smaller and the sun was brightly out that day, which was helping to diminish his bounty of ice. Pugs as we often referred to him, was soon running in circles and wondering where all the ice cubes had gone.

I think often as a trading systems developer about that event I witnessed that day. Am I like Pugs frantically running from perfectly good methods one to the next rather than just slowing down and enjoying the one good method I have discovered! Yes I think in many was I am just as guilty as good ole Pugs at wasting my time chasing after each and every avenue of successful methods. All of which will suffice to do what I so desperately want to accomplish, which is to master the markets. Have I not mastered the markets many who know me would ask, I answer until there is perfection I will not rest. Yet I wonder if not the discovery of one method which is successful though not perfect is in fact perfection itself? Ironic and mind bending to say the least and that of which I am relentlessly torturing myself to achieve is that which I have most likely already accomplished.

Mark Brown

http://www.markbrown.com/