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dan salyer wrote:
>
> Has anyone invested in Oceanview Financial's course by Mark Boucher
> called "The Science of Trading". If so, would like to hear any feedback
>
> Dan
Dan --
I'm currently "taking" this class and well, I have something of a mixed
reaction. Oceanview Financial represents this program as being "The
Science of Short Term Trading" which it most definately IS NOT. I would
say that 75% of the concepts discussed in this course are for
longer-term trading (like 6 months and on). A good portion of the text
is devoted to market timing, and identifying "runaway" (highly trending)
markets and then applying a variety of strategies to enter and exit
these conditions.
As you know, Oceanview Financial is run in part by Larry Connors,
co-author of "Investment Secrets of a Hedge Fund Manager" and co-author
of "Street Smarts". In reading both of those books, I enjoyed not only
the content (i.e, the strategies) but also the manner in which the
information was presented - clear, concise, little-to-no b.s. - just
trading ideas and how to implement them.
I wish I could say the same for "The Science of (Short-Term) Trading".
While Oceanview hypes the fact that there are a lot of trading pattern
setups in this course, the applicability of these patterns is suspect:
as a matter of fact, Boucher admits that HE DOESN'T EVEN USE these
patterns anymore, since he is more concerned with vehicle selection than
pattern recognition. Makes you wonder how useful this information
really is, then.
Also, when Boucher tested these patterns, he tested them over 80
different vehicles (50 stocks and 30 commodities) for a twenty year
period, making for 1600 vehicle years under consideration (80 * 20).
Some of these patterns came up a little over 125 times over 1600 vehicle
years, or once every 12.8 vehicle year -- pretty useful, huh? I don't
think so. I would apply some of these patterns to 5 year data on INTC,
MSFT and AMGN and they wouldn't occur ONCE in ANY of these stocks.
In contrast to Connors works, the course itself was cobbled together
from a variety of other courses that Boucher has presented over the
years - thus, you are left with a tapestry of different pages all
stuffed into one big binding. Boucher actually includes a couple of
audio recordings from classes he gave in 1989 in which the audio quality
is terrible (you get the chance to listen for three hours of this
stuff), and all of the programming information (for various mechanical
strategies) is given in CompuTrac language and Metastock language -
nothing for Tradestation, WoW, etc.
Finally, a good chunk of the material presented by Boucher is really
from other traders (and he readily admits it): Williams, Appel, Zweig,
Gann and others have some of their stuff lifted verbatim into this
course.
Maybe its just because I have read better material than this (in terms
of professional presentation) that it angers me to spend $350 for
somebody's old photocopies and cassette tapes - maybe Boucher should
have taken the effort to put together something a bit more professional
and worthy of his sharp mind rather than something that looks like my
old high school physics notes.
Now, for the benefits of this course, consider the following:
* Boucher provides a very interesting, albeit limited, approach to
macro-economic analysis on an international basis. He cuts through a
lot bull and identifies those macro-economic and liquidity variables
that one must follow to invest succesfully on a global basis.
* Boucher focuses a lot on those underlying principles which really
facilitate incredible growth and profit opportunities in the markets -
i.e., what do companies and countries need to be doing to really create
great wealth for citizens and investors.
* The course discusses some interesting methods of measuring the
trendiness and upside potential of markets in a relatively simple yet
logical way.
Again, I don't think many (if any) of these principles are applicable to
strictly a short-term view of trading. While Boucher is obviously a
master trader, I'm not sure whether he is a master teacher - if he is a
master teacher, it certainly doesn't come through in this course.
Overall while the ideas are good, they do not focus on short-term
trading (as marketed) nor are they presented in the most coherent or
logical manner. I plan to "re-take" this course as soon as I have the
time, in order to try to extract some more useful info from it, but
right now, I don't think my trading will improve that much having taken
this course once.
As for whether you should "invest" in this course, I would try to borrow
a copy first and determine if you like what you see. I think what you'll
find will vary from the way the course is marketed currently by
Oceanview Financial.
Sincerely,
Michael Strupp
Chicago, Illinois
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