Michael Covel: News & Info.

A nice comment from Bill Miller about my new book The Complete TurtleTrader:

“If you want to beat the market, you have to do something different from what everyone else is doing, and you have to be right. In this fascinating and instructive book, Michael Covel tells how a group of novice traders used a system that generated trades that were both different and right, and which made them a lot of money. If you want to understand the real world of trading, read this book.”
Bill Miller, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer,
Legg Mason Capital Management

More on Miller.

I write in my book Trend Following of Bill Dunn’s great success (he made hundreds of millions) and his nearly three decades of impressive performance. However, there has been negative performance in the last few years. His drawdown is well over 50% (not necessarily unusual for him), but it has extended for several years (that is unusual). Time will tell!

Funny (and relevant) cartoon.

Feedback in:

I just had one question in relation to “flat markets.” You have mentioned in the podcasts, that it is during the time where markets are relatively flat, that trend followers are accumulating a lot of small losses. In order to minimize the size of these losses, would it not be best to be out of the market completely and then return to the market once an upward trend has been established?

Good point. Your question, your point is one of the many reasons you can find differing performance among traders who trade as trend followers.

Even if you were the best fundamental analyst in the world, how do you explain (and trade) this chart.

Saw this ad on Yahoo Finance tonight:

So I clicked and received:

HTTP Error 404 - File or directory not found

Made me smile. While I have been critical of the idea that Buffett’s success can be emulated, I do know he is not pushing ads on Yahoo!

A great analysis about the game of governmental regulation over top investors. An excerpt:

“Why stop with hedge funds?” asked Kenneth A. Gruber, a professor of biological sciences at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, Calif. He said if the SEC wants to be paternalistic it should look to protect investors from other risky investments, such as penny stocks. “Does any sophisticated investor [or the SEC] believe that penny stocks are a safer investment than hedge funds? I submit it is easier to lose one’s shirt on penny stock investments than in hedge funds. Where will it end?”

A review of “The Complete TurtleTrader” in the September 2007 issue of SFO Magazine.