THE ALCHEMIST                      by AL THOMAS
                           COPY CAT
            How many books have you read about
successful traders? How they did this or that and
made a fortune and are still doing it. You say to
yourself, “I’m going to follow his method and get
rich”.
           So you subscribe to his newsletter (they
all have one, $250) and buy his course on CD($495)
and next time he is anywhere near you attend his
seminar with a $500 discount for only $2495. You
do understand you must do exactly as he does and
you try your best to follow the directions, but
for some reason you still are not making money. At
least you are not losing as much as you did before
(I hope).
         Go look in the mirror. You are not Richard
Russell, Richard Wyckoff, Bill O’Neil or any one
of the great gurus of the market place. Each one
of them has devoted every minute of his life to
understanding the market. Each one is very
successful and each one has a completely different
way of approaching trading. Can you copy any one
of them? It is very doubtful.
        These great teachers can help you, but
you have to develop your own method and style of
investment. Whether it is long term or short term
it must be something with which you resonate.

When I was a floor trader there were a thousand

guys trading and I know there were a thousand

different guide lines. No one had the same buy

or sell signal. If they all followed a pat program

they would all be buying and selling at the same

time so it could not work.
       I have stood in the pit and watched the
same person offer to buy and when there was no
seller he would then offer to sell usually at the
same price. Yes, he was scalping for one or 2 ticks,
but he knew what he was doing even if it looked
strange. A friend of mine could arbitrage by
standing in the middle of the gold pit and hit
buys and sells that were off by one or two ticks
because they could not hear each other due to the
noise of other traders who were shouting their
offers.
       You can look at the basic trading style of
one of the “greats”, but you must adapt it to your
method. I have not seen anyone able to
successfully copy a trading program exactly. You
will improvise and find a slightly new approach
that becomes “yours”. It then becomes part of

your cellular being. It works for you and

probably won’t work for anyone else.
       If the programs the hype masters are selling
work so well why aren’t there more rich traders?

And if the programs are so darn good why are

they telling you?
       To be a successful trader you can’t copy cat
an existing program, but you can take a basic

trading vehicle and modify it  your own plan.

Turn that cat into your own tiger.

 

 F*R*E*E investment letter

www.mutualfundmagic.com
Author of best seller "IF IT DOESN'T GO UP,
DON'T BUY IT!" Never lose money in the market.
Copyright 2004 Albert W. Thomas All rights
reserved. Former 17-year exchange member,

floor trader and brokerage company owner.