I had a subscription to Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities way back several years ago. I wrote a few articles for them that ended up being published. As the owner of a web trading software company that occasionally advertised in the magazine, they’ve sent me the magazine for several years now.
I have to admit — I rarely read it. I typically glance at the cover to see who this month’s interview is with to see if it’s someone I know. I also glance at the trading strategy article to see if it’s worth reading.
I have, however, for reasons I can’t fully describe, saved almost every magazine I’ve received. I thought that one day I would troll through the archives looking for trading strategy ideas. My archive has swollen to over a foot of shelf space. I considered simply tossing them.
I thought a better idea would be to blog a summary of the trading idea from each magazine. Finding a fully formed trading strategy in the magazine is almost certainly a pipe dream — I realize that most people that write articles for TASC are indirectly marketing some product and/or raising their public profile. What other incentive would you have to give away a working trading system in such a public way?
The point of reviewing these old trading ideas is not to find something to trade as-is — it’s to stretch your trading brain and get out of your trading rut. We all have to work hard to think of unique trading ideas. It’s arrogant to think that we have all the trading answers instilled at birth or even learned through the years of experience of one person. It’s also silly to expect to read a few articles and come away with a profitable trading strategy. The best that we can hope for is something in the middle — see how other people think differently about the markets and see if there are some nuggets that we can incorporate some aspect of their ideas into our own to create something unique.
I’ll be taking each of the magazines in my archive and writing a summary of the trading strategy article before it goes to the recycle bin. The goal is to add some ideas to my trading strategy vault. My goal is to post a new summary regularly. We’ll see how it goes.
