Tom Basso Interview

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. But, have been extremely busy at my day job. I'm also busy testing various ways to capture the sideways congestion in Melba Toast. The initial rules work to some extent...but after further tests...still don't capture the exact model I'm looking for.

So, I've decided I've got to go old school and start collecting charts of all the sideways congestion examples I'm looking for. I'm going to create a page on the blog and store the charts there. That way I can spend more time checking out the specifics of the moves. And hopefully find a way to logically explain the pattern I'm looking for. I'll post a link to this page in the next few days.

Until then, check out this great little interview of Tom Basso. Read the pdf here. Basso is one of my favorite fund managers in the Market Wizards book series. And in this interview Basso shares some gems.

Back-testing can be useful, but I recommend you go one more step. Print out the gory details.

I look for an indication that a trend either exists or doesn't. I like to look for those markets that aren't currently trending, the ones nobody cares about. Those are the markets that are likely to make a move one way or another.

If you mismatch what you're trying to do to who you are and what skills and resources you have, you're always going to be fighting it and never be in sync with it. If, on the other hand, you match your trading system to yourself, then trading can become as easy as breathing.

And don't miss Basso's famous money management test on a random selection of trades. Profits to losses were setup as a two-to-one ratio and the buys and sells were fed back randomly. The tests showed professionals focused on risk while amateurs focused on gain. Something to think about.

MT