Here is a nice letter to get.
As you know, I have been trading a middle-sized account (i.e. never been in your million-dollar club) since day one of the private site. As you also
know, I am pretty conservative, and had zero prior experience with shortselling before I met you two years ago. I'm worthless as a mo-mo trader, a typical day for me is from zero to five trades, and my average hold period is 3 to 15 days.
I also have a relatively low tolerance for risk, because I support a family, living off the proceeds of trading, with a very small margin of error. Given that context, I think you will appreciate the following story, which I offer because I hope it helps other members.
I recently reviewed my 2 year track record with a friend of mine who is a professional fund manager, for 14 years now, running appx $50 million of Other People's Money,
His approach is totally different than ours, and he knows nothing about shortselling. He is a successful market timer, and his goal is to outperform the S&P by a few percentage points every year, while maintaining
a very low beta (risk profile), because the money is out of the market most of the time. This makes his services very attractive to very wealthy folks for whom capital preservation is paramount.
He is interested in what I do because I have been able to maintain a 75% -150% annual return on my trading activities since I met you. (Of course this is 5 to 10 times his rate of return...) I keep a simple but detailed
log of my trading results which includes daily mark-to-market balances, and a log of every trade I have ever made. He reviewed this data using forumulas to analyze risk and volatility. He nearly dropped his drawers.
He exclaimed: "Omigod, your beta is lower than mine!!!!"
(Meaning my volatility measure is lower than his, on a numbers basis my results, analytically speaking, are subject to less risk than his. Remember his entire strategy is based on risk avoidance.)
I do not overallocate (since ADSP!!!) and, as you know, am now permanently allergic to longs. I have made about 500 trades in the last 2 years, and appx 80% of them have been profitalble. (Nearly 100% would have been profitable if I had had the resources to hold them instead of stop out.)
Anybody who listens to what you said last night, and applies the discipline to stop gambling on longs, momentum trades, and overallocating trying for home runs, and just learns from you and trades short with modest allocations, will prosper handsomely.
Sure a few lucky folks figure this out on their own, but for all the rest of us, you have given us an incredible gift. It is hard to find words to describe the magnitude of my appreciation for your sharing this incredible
life skill, so this will have to do.
From the heart, thanks, bro,
Alan ( aka ACS 101 )
DISCLAIMER ACS101 is a fully paying member of the site, has no connection to the site nor does he benefit in any way from the member fees , We just happened to become friends from being online together, While he managed the site while I was on my tennis trip, Alan never asked for nor has he ever recieved one penny from me , Eims or a soul related to the site..This letter is real as all member comments in our review |
