Traders' Roundtable

I guess someone needs to start this category off, although understand it could get a bit sensitive for some parties.

I've used Angus Jackson for a couple of years to trade my systems and have found them: possibly a bit pricey; very accurate; proactive in contacting me if they have a strong opinion re the performance of a systems; very quick to respond to any queries - usually by a phone call from one of the senior people there (which is gold class service for a UK-bases trader). So I'd strongly recommend them.

I'm interested of anyone out there would like to share an opinion re yp and the Castle Trading people - they appear to be very competitive and have some interesting and innovative ideas. if you don't want to share publicly, then feel free to e-mail me at stephen@nutrinnovator.com

Stephen

I've been using Castle Trading for 3 years now.
They do custom testing and simulations for me.
yp manages 2 hedgefunds.
Nothing but great service.

Jerry

I have both Angus and Castle plus a few others. I also have one who is just terrible, who I keep trading a mini one lot for one of my systems. I use his execution as a benchmark for really terrible fills.

Angus is good, pricy yes. Better rates with shorter term systems that trade more but still they pad their minis by a dollar or two with fees that Castle doesn’t charge. It sounds like you’re getting better service from Angus than I am. They sometimes ignore my emails and offer no info or help with researching new systems. On more than one occasion they made what I though was a poor choice as what to do what to do in an unusual situation. But otherwise the execution is top notch.

Castle is first rate. They do a lot of research, testing and low commissions. My vote goes to Castle.

I just wanted to step in for a minute and say that I know that discussions in the past on various forums have degenerated at times when people who have various commercial interests have had discussions, or there have been discussions about them by others.

I really want this forum to discuss these sorts of things openly.

One of the best ways we can help each other is by making sure that we tell the truth and by recommending people/companies that do good work, and by letting others know when people/companies don't do good work. I opened this forum about brokers because I know this is one of the areas where it is hardest to get good honest information. Since we all have non-anonymous identities here, we should be able to share information and avoid some poor brokers/system sellers, etc.

Pardon, my interruption.

My question is more general in nature.

I am a little confused over how I would integrate money management rules into a robo-broker strategy.

Can I say "risk 1% of closed equity on every signal" to the system broker, and they do all of the calculations, or do I have to get more personally involved, with instructions like "trade every signal with 2 contracts until I hit x in equity"?

I have similar concerns over complex orders, such as pyramiding and "don't take the current signal if the last trade was a winner" rules.

In our case....we follow all rules or have them programmed into Trading recipes.
So we know exactly which money management rules to follow.

the client does not call every trade, it's done automatically via a computer.
Some systems have complex money management algorightms. We use excel for those.
yp

Hi,

My experience till now with Castle Trading is great! Very supportive and straightforward. I am not a representative, just a learning trader. Look for yourself and do what fits you best.

Marc.

Schwager's book on Managed Futures talks of trading CTA funds. A topic I have recently been looking at. Or Indeed hedge funds in general. Notional funding of a basket of CTA funds or CTA funds of funds (such as Sperry) can produce excellent returns and an excellent risk reward ratio. And by the same token great diversification. Same with geared investment in other types of hedge funds - look at the Fix family of funds or Gottex's product. This can be achieved with limited liability - regardless of the level of gearing (which is secured by the fund itself without recourse to the investor) the investor's total risk is limited to his ungeared investment. Compare that to systems trading where, if you trade in your own name, the liability is unlimited. Just a thought and not a very helpful one to anyone with insufficient capital to pursue this route.