TA Swing Trader was an experiment in taking the way I trade to an independent site and offering it as a service. Through feedback, I place the restriction on it that I trade only out of hours (before/after the market) and that proved difficult to successfully do. Couple that with the time needed to effectively trade for this site as well as all my other responsibilities, Ive shut the service down. You can visit me at www.tatoday.com for continuing market commentary; trades; resources.

L.A.


TA Swing Trader primarily trades individual smaller captilization stock positions hedging with index ETFs for risk management. It is geared towards traders who seek advice on entry and exit points on a diversified portfolio that will outperform the general market with low risk/size of draw downs. Comparatively our Sharpe Ratio and W:L is among the best for stocks while our worst to-date drawdown is around 3%. Our ranking within C2 is extreme; approaching 1000. Add to all of this the fact that we offer thoughts most mornings and on each positional entry/change along with a concise reasoning for the move. This enables you to learn as you go. Questions are always welcomed.

We believe that the market can be successfully timed and that, over time, considerable wealth can be created as a result. We have a three-pronged approach to successful trading; (1) protect your capital (minimal drawdowns), (2) the use of technical analysis [TA] for market and stock "reads", and (3) using simple probabilities along with TA to determine risk and reward.

Our approach is technical and our track record suggests that, over time, the majority of our trades are closed successfully (we have been trading this system for 4+ years successfully). By trading historically successful setups and minimizing risk in any indvidual position, over time we produce superior results to the market as well as most other trading systems. We do all of this while maintaining miniscule drawdowns. Our approach is to cut losses short and to let winners run to reasonable target levels before trimming them. This is not a get rich quick system and conversely its NOT a get poor quickly system either.

We start with a top down approach; what is the general market and sector trend for the timeframe we are trading. Given that trend, each day we run scans picking and choosing setups that we like. The majority of trade recommendations for opening positions are made during the evening or early morning hours (outside normal market hours) to reduce your slippage and accomodate traders who cannot trade continually during the trading day. You see where we plan to buy and to sell and where our stops are. We always use stops, most of the time placing them at the same time we open the position. We place numerous orders of which, only a portion will be filled. Our system is built around successfully identifying support, resistance and both market and individual stock trends. We seek to enter a position when the risk to reward is in our favor and will pass on trades where that isnt the case. The portoflio will contain as many as 40 to 50 stocks at times when the general market trend supports such a position. We are adaptive however, and when the market doesnt support our desire to swing trade we either go to cash or primarily trade ETF positions. Generally we use ETF contracts to hedge when appropriate but we do speculate with them when the timing appears right. Many times we will average in and out of positions using varying time frames for each trade.

To trade the TA Swing Trader system, we make the following assumptions:
1. You need to trade most, if not all the positions recommended. A large part of the success of our system (and your success in using it) is built around the idea of managing risk through position size, varying time frames, and hedging the portfolio. Significant returns are achieved by consistenly utilizing the capital available and not allowing it to sit idle for significant time periods.

2. You need to trade in a similar proportion. The model portfolio provided by C2 is $100K as a starting point. You will need to determine your portfolio size relative to the size of this portfolio when you subscribe and trade in relative proportion. The vast majority of the trades you will see transacted in this portfolio will account for 2% to 3% of the overall net worth of the portfolio at that point in time. Exceptions are taken when the risk/reward for a particular trade are compelling and/or when hedging a portfolio using ETF instruments.

3. You need to use stops. Almost, if not all positions, will have stops associated with them when opened. Sometimes we will lose on a stop when we could have stayed in, but in general, stops are protection and are needed as part of the risk management. We will adjust stops as the trade develops and we will scale in and out of positions as time passes either trimming or closing trades as targets are hit or conditions warrant.

We trade instruments offered primarily on NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX exchanges.