Foundations of Trading: Developing Profitable Trading Systems using Scientific Techniques

Writers know writing more is easier than writing less. I have purchased all of Howard’s books. This one distills a lot of the nuggets from the bigger, earlier reference-like tomes down to nerd’s nectar drinkable in just one shot. Howard Bandy writes methodically and clearly covering how to think though solutions and then how to code them (more so in the larger, earlier books). This is what’s needed in this sliver of technical analysis.

I have read a lot of books on trading. This is brief to the point and just simply excellent. Each page will add to your business plan and methods that should pay off for you, I know they have for me.

Really just a bunch of lists of this and of that, but it is the essential information from all his other books distilled into a sort of outline form. But being new to trading, it is a big help in getting familiar with trading with systems.

My approach is take my current best trading system and apply the principles provided by a book to see if that improves my return and if the effort appears profitable. In this case Dr. bandy's encouragement offered in this book is a success. My out-of-sample performance improved two-fold.It was a bit painful as I am a casual Amibroker user and known to be a bit stubborn and not prone to much effort. Resisting change may be normal. At least in my case, the applied effort appears rewarding. Mind you, I am still not "up to speed" in all that this book offers but I thought my current success is worth passing on.My first hurdle was his use of "CAR25" as an objective function. A little encouragement from Amibroker's support to read the documentation for the included Monte Carlo routine brought the reward, plug and play. It also refreshed my use of CAR plus 3 times the maximum draw-down as an objective function to be considered. The second hurdle was to incorporate a risk measured stop loss. Here again Amibrokers' references were helpful. The third was to incorporate a limited term holding period. The beauty of the Amibroker platform is its ability to address a number of optimization parameters applied against a set of buy candidates. Those improvements to my former "best" approach brought the out-of-sample performance into three digits over the recent six plus years, the max draw-down under 8% and the Ulcer Performance Index above two digits. I still may incorporate a general market timer such as StormGuard Armor a la SectorSurfer.Dr Bandy's works are a great resource for the development and application of mechanical trading strategies. I still have much to learn from them.

Wow. Maybe Im just not smart enough.Or have a degree in mathematics, computer science.It was a difficult read, and it feels more like a textbook with almost no examples to what he is talking about.got very little out of the book. If you are a novice, or do not posses any of the degrees above. stay away.can I get a refund?

Had a couple of useful insights, but overall wasn't worth it. You may have to buy his other books to develop a bigger picture.

It's ok, but basic. Lots of list and references to his other books. I you have to choose, buy Quantitative Technical Analysis. After reading that, this is not necessary anymore.

Got a free copy of this book as part of a first come, first served offer and my thoughts on this:A quote from an article about Jim Simons, the founder of Renaissance Technologies LLC:“The advantage scientists bring…is less their mathematical or computational skills than their ability to think scientifically,” Mr. Simons said, according to an investor document. “They are less likely to accept an apparent winning strategy that might be a mere statistical fluke.”11 Oct 2016 Wall Street Journal Article by Gregory Zuckerman.If the Simons, who runs one of, if not, the most successful of Wall Street’s consistently profitable hedge funds says he prizes scientific thinking then you can take it that the scientific method is a proven one for achieving Alpha from the markets.This book, Foundations of Trading, is from one of the pioneers in the field of retail strategy automation and testing and he has written this to keep the retail investors up to date in the field. A great coverage of the scientific methods and techniques in the field of data analysis and it’s applications to trading as well as broaching the more advanced areas of data mining and optimisation.Getting the insight of the mind of someone with such vast experience in these areas of scientific methodology and financial trading is an invaluable opportunity.Another quote attributed to Isaac Newton: “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”

Good value.