1. This year should demonstrate the practical value of the Tortoise market classification methodology. The ETF2 “Smart Steps” weekly recommendations combined with the ETF evaluation methodology has offered plenty of warning to protect your portfolio against the ravages of this year’s multiple bears. The assorted specialty reports have identified trends in multiple market sectors that have offered decent returns, and the inverse fund reports have offered ways to take advantage of the downtrends this year. Short term pattern systems like Washout and 5DD not only allow you to capture some high reward:risk opportunities but also serve as reversal signals for short selling if the original trade fails. The ETF Overreaction system has been excellent this year, with a very high winning % as well as returning almost +7% YTD (knock on wood).
2. Inside the Tortoise mastermind trading room, the shorter term traders have been navigating these treacherous markets with care and respect for the power of the recent volatility. We’ve been working some short term trades that have enabled traders to pull some excellent profits from favorable setups, in a very risk controlled manner.
3. I am really grateful for the dedication and shared insights I personally get from the mastermind traders, and I can see how it is making me a better trader. It comes from 2 areas: (1) a need to be clear about the trade setups and rationale I discuss in the room, knowing that the gang will analyze it quickly and competently, and (2) the tremendous insights we develop from the multiple points of view represented in the room.
4. The archive of closed trades and threaded discussions from the live market sessions are also turning out to be quite an excellent set of documented lessons in real time trading. I honestly think that if you are interested in improving your trading game, and want to leverage the power of the various Tortoise research reports and shorter term methods that the combination of Campfire Chatroom and Basecamp Planning area is an excellent resource for a reasonable annual rate.
5. Bottom line: Either the General Motors (GM) trade or the Wachovia Bank (WB) trade from this week would have paid for the next 10 years of subscription rates with only a normal, professional level of risk.
6. It’s also clear that there is interest in doing another in-person workshop. I am preparing a flyer for it, but briefly, it’s a workshop where participants submit trading plans and research concepts a couple weeks ahead of time for the group to review and analyze, and then we meet to exchange presentations, give and receive detailed feedback, and develop community insights into our market approaches. The payoff is extraordinary, especially because these are “learn by doing” sessions that will help you develop your action plan, rather than “information dump” classes. My travel schedule allows me to host one in KC in either mid-November or early December. Let me know if interested (I have the list of folks who have already indicated interest)
7. The mastermind is preparing for our first web meeting later this month to investigate the utility of doing on-line meetings to maintain our research momentum from our first conference. If that goes as well as I think it will, it may offer another method of sharing our community insights. More to follow on this one, once we see how it goes.
example of a Tortoise mastermind low risk trade in high risk times