The designer of my DVD case and ‘sheep’ imagery recently posted some nice pictures:

One

Two

A cropped image (full image at above links):

$1.

I saw someone this morning posting that asset bubbles (read: real estate and stocks) could have been prevented if we had more regulation. Really? Will all human behavior, the root of bubbles since the dawn of modern humanity, be stopped in the future with more regulation? Caution, if you respond I did chose my words carefully:

A fund manager (and client) writes me from Brazil:

Hi Michael. you ever heard about Leda Braga? She is a Brazilian trend follower with more than $1B USD in assets. She runs BlueCrest and Man has been allocating in her fund for a long time now. Interesting that she is a women, Brazilian, a trend follower and few people know her.

Very quiet firm…more:

Braga, whose $8 billion Blue­Trend Fund is a momentum-based, trend-­following fund, stands alone as the world’s top female portfolio manager in terms of assets under management. Although she prefers to fly under the radar, fellow hedge-fund mana­gers swoon over her knowledge of FX/interest-rate hybrids, equity derivatives and interest-rate exotics, offering praise composed of equal parts shock and awe. As one multibillion-dollar hedgie puts it: “I met her at a Tokyo conference, and if there were ever a quant strategy I would invest in, it’s hers. She’s constantly stressing the need to upgrade and refine trading systems, that you can’t just walk away and expect them to perform with markets shifting so quickly. She’s a dynamo.” Braga heads BlueTrend’s quant strategies. She’s also the president of BlueCrest Capital.

Braga, 42, attended Imperial College in the U.K., where she earned a Ph.D. in engineering and worked for three years after graduation as a lecturer and a research-project manager. She is reportedly the largest staff equity holder in parent company BlueCrest, after legendary cofounders Bill Reeves and Michael Platt. Chances are this might have something to do with the massive returns she has bagged since her fund’s inception in 2004, not to mention her flawless handling of the subprime crisis, which has flummoxed many of her competitors. “Last year, the BlueTrend fund returned approximately 28 percent, net of fees, and this year it was up about 13 percent on the same basis by the end of July,” notes BlueCrest CFO Andrew Dodd.

A former JPMorgan colleague of Reeves and Platt, who quit their jobs as proprietary traders in 2000 to found BlueCrest, ­Braga worked for nearly seven years as a vice president and quant analyst on the bank’s London derivatives-research team before joining the spin-off and derivatives risk-management firm Cygnifi Derivatives Services in 2000. BlueCrest snared her in October 2001, deciding its successful maiden voyage into fixed-income and currency markets should be encored with some black-box strategies. Braga’s fund launched in 2002. A year later, Man Group snapped up a minority stake in BlueCrest, and the rest is trading history.

Despite all the fanfare, Braga is strikingly modest. Attempting to reach her, Trader Monthly ­received an e-mail in which she beseeched her assistant to ward us off. “Aaaarghhh!” she lamen­ted. “Only the misinformed can possibly be interested in me.” Genius, it seems, doesn’t always take to the spotlight.

Feedback in:

Couldn’t sleep last night so I turned the tube on. The doc channel had you on, (I never watch the channel). Thank You for spending time to do this. Just as spoken in the video what Wall Street, the main stream media, & the government don’t want you to know. Thank you again and please post when the show is on so I can inform my friends as to when it is on!

Thanks!

The Russian version of “The Complete TurtleTrader” is available here. Any chance one of my Russian speaking friends can locate the book on that site and send me the link?

Thanks Eric:

http://www.piter.com/book.phtml?978538800322

The new edition of Your Tradig Edge (Australia) has a front cover interview with me:

Full size.

A question in today:

Dear Michael, about 4 1/2 years ago I was preparing for an interview with [very famous trend following trader with 20+ year track record] and came across your site. I got the job, didn’t take it, but I have continued reading your site regularly since. I also read both of your books. We’re on the same page. I really enjoy all of your stuff! I develop financial software for a living and have experience developing optimization models. I’m starting to work on my own trend following system. I want to put my background to work and come up with an “algorithmic” system – similar to [famed trend follower's] approach. I’m thinking about buying your course. Do you think it’s a good fit for someone with my background/interests? Thanks and keep up the good work.

The fit for our course for someone like yourself is on several fronts:

1. Our DVD mentoring interviews are “mission critical” for all traders.

2. Our resource CD has over 100 files on it that I am sure you will find “musts”.

3. Our Q/A — where you and I can exchange emails — will be beneficial.

4. Plus all other aspects.

Some course features may be old hat for you, but there is plenty that you will find of tremendous value.

Bill Gross writes:

Investors must recognize that if assets appreciate with nominal GDP, a 4–5% return is about all they can expect even with abnormally low policy rates. Rage, rage, against this conclusion if you wish, but the six-month rally in risk assets – while still continuously supported by Fed and Treasury policymakers – is likely at its pinnacle. Out, out, brief candle.

A question came in today to me on Facebook:

I have been looking [at] your…website and there seems to be a number of different study packages. Apart from the price differences and varying number of CD’s what is the actual difference between all the courses? Thanks, G. H.

On the FAQs here the differences are listed. It comes down to the Market Wizard DVDs!

Every time I see a crazy headline its the same AP author:

Stocks fall as new home sales post surprise drop of 3.6 percent for September

Really? Why the surprise? Cause there was a prediction saying something else? A prediction made by the same unknowns who predicted nothing in the last year? Tim Paradis please never leave the game of financial reporting. If I did not have you I would have far less fun in life!

Larry Hite and Charles Faulkner were both profiled in Jack Schwager’s Market Wizards series years back. Over the last two days we have been editing full interviews that I conducted with both men. Good stuff. Final DVDs ready in few weeks!