Just out–
Art Collins – The 2017 Almanac for Beating the Financial Futures Market
How systems in Beating the Financial Futures Market have been performing in the 11 year “virtual real time” since the 2006 publication. Plus additional systems, more market axioms, anecdotes and pontifications on my number one obsession–trading! An addendum rather than a full length book, but nevertheless chock full of information
Also…. the original book
Beating the Financial Futures Market by Art Collins (reprint of original version)
Samples
Beating the Financial Futures-Chapter 1
Beating the Financial Futures-Preface
Ten years ago, I published Beating The Financial Futures Market: Combining Small Biases Into Powerful Money Making Strategies. It was an intensive undertaking. The research, construction of charts and tables plus the usual writing challenges proved far more arduous than I‘d anticipated.
It was also a labor of love. The dozens of trading methodologies I included were like my babies. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to share them, but I couldn’t figure out another way to justify a full book-length project. I don’t know how to razzle-dazzle. I don’t know how to assert anything that isn’t demonstrably provable. Beating was a near cover-to-cover collection of back-tested mechanical trading systems; profitable systems no less.
I can’t think of another book that offers that. I don’t think there is one. Several industry colleagues accused me of “giving away the store.” They were right. And I only charged $65.
My publishing company didn’t see my contribution as anything special. They put me in their catalogue behind a four or five digit item number reflecting the vast array of books they pushed or ignored fairly equally. I approached their booth at a trade show and asked their rep why it wasn’t on display. She was unable to trace it. Not surprisingly, the book eventually went out of print.
I recently saw a used version being offered on Amazon for over $1500. It’s not there now—maybe somebody took the bait. Who knows, maybe they’ve already recouped their expenditure via the systems. Ok, that was a little facetious. Well, maybe not so much.
I periodically re-visit those 2006 systems. Some aren’t holding up, (markets do drift) while others have gone onto to greater heights. The complete codes are included, so no one has to second guess an updated performance. As always, I encourage my readers to do their own work.
Perhaps the real value of Beating The Financial Futures Market is found in and around the actual systems. I also provide a good overview on mechanical system trading. Unlike markets, there is no “drift” in the time honored axioms. They are as true today as they were ten years ago. They’ll be equally true ten or 50 years from now. The reason is simple. Markets are emotion-driven. While there may be bedrock fundamental realities such as the size of a crop or the impact of a world conflict, human response drives markets and in a macro sense, it doesn’t change. This is especially true in the financial futures markets, the main focus of the book. The stock market and all its auxiliary offshoots is a big cauldron of fear and greed and paranoia and hysteria. People will lunge for phones or hit their buy/sell computer keys in pretty much the same places for the same reasons in the same fashion as always.
I’m more interested in educating people than I am selling systems. I want to enthuse people over the prospect that they too can profit off back-tested ideas of their own design. I go through a methodical outline of the pitfalls of gut trading and why the mechanical approach is a viable remedy, the various stats in a performance summary and which should be the most valued, and how the whole enterprise is a numbers game that needs adequate initial capitalization to operate. I stress how 99 percent mechanical trading is not mechanical; that if you allow any discretion to mix with your mathematical model, you’ll likely get the worst of both worlds.
All this comes from decades of my personal experience. I provide personal anecdotes. I love trading, and I think that is reflected in my every sentence. As longtime Chicago Board of Trade member, I’ve “walked the walk” with my own money. I don’t have the temperament or the inclination to lie or fudge facts. To me, it’s so much easier to put out there what I actually know.
So now that the rights to Beating The Financial Futures Market have reverted to me, I’ve decided to re-release the book as originally written in an Ebook format. Someday maybe I’ll do a Volume 2—again, that will take work. For now, accept this collection timeless truths and some to-date well performing systems. You don’t even have to pay $1500 for it. Just the same modest $65. For that, you get all the abundant systems, observations and anecdotes, plus complete code that can be copied and pasted directly into a Trade Station strategy window.
Thanks for your interest.
Sincerely,
Art Collins
artcollinstrading.com