Re: Daniel Kertcher/Platinum Pursuits - Serious or Scam?
It may not be call writing in the classical sense, but then again, I was never one much for doing things the conventional way.
Clearly, running with Alvin on this issue will not answer the purpose of this thread. By his own admission we know that Alvin's Trades deviate markedly (?) from the Trading Pursuits (TP) Income Report trade ideas. It would be fair to say that his results are not what you would obtain if you followed TP Monthly Trade ideas strictly. Looking at Alvin's trades, a lay person would get a completely wrong idea about the nature of the trades that TP suggests for members. Alvin is a Discretionary Trader, he has stated that he was influenced by the TP course/s that he had attended and that's all good. He now trades his own unique style modified somewhat from his original TP knowledge. It works for him. If what Alvin portrays in his posts is accurate, then he has been " IN THE ZONE" with a purple patch for over 3 years, good luck to him and may the Trading Gods continue to be with him. And by the way WayneL, Alvin could not possibly be Daniel Kertcher in disguise, from my observations, Daniel is too polished an individual to engage in this level of subterfuge.
On the flip side however, there are I believe, a majority of others like myself who have attended the TP course and have been trading US options strictly off the Trade ideas provided monthly and weekly from TP. We don't go searching for our own trades and are quite happy for TP to provide a list of filtered ideas to choose from (priceless). It's time we came forward.
As for me, I have been using TP since Nov 2010 albeit in a patchy manner for the first 30 months, but it was only in June 2013 after having been convinced of its viability (my opinion again) and armed with steely determination, did I finally decide to adequately fund my account and take every trade idea from TP. I have coupled this with my own robust risk management tool for exiting losing positions which is slightly more conservative than what TP uses. By the way, I agree with WayneL; a covered Call with GSL is not without risk of loss. In fact the DITM buy/writes are no longer a feature of TP's trade ideas in their Income report, I don't trades these at all, because firstly, they were relatively cumbersome to execute and manage, secondly TP has not provided enough of them to make it viable (averaging less than 1 covered call per month now eg. none for this December), and lastly, in my opinion, they were no less riskier than the naked variety in certain circumstances(stressed). I concentrate only on TP's 2nd course - the Income PLUS trade ideas, purely for the Income Generation it offers through short PUTs and short CALLs.
What about my results so far? I undertook to post my results on this thread after 6 months of trades, or, if there was a losing month. It has been 5 months and there was a losing month in October. I have been aiming for an average 5% return per month on my entire account balance (as opposed to return on margin employed ). Suffice to say, I have not achieved this. I've averaged just 3.36% per month over 5 months so far because of that 1 losing month and also because volatility was low, consequently premium. However my 4 winning months have averaged 4.69% per month. I fully agree that the 5 months results are woefully inadequate to confirm the long term viability of my activity, however I believe that provided I continue to rigorously apply my exit plan (when needed) I will avoid the proverbial Steam roller and continue to pick up my pennies on the way.
As for "Black Swan" events, well that's another thing all together. Any Market participant can be affected by one of these either negatively or positively. I currently do not have any insurance against the negative effects of this but am seriously considering incorporating a permanent long/short term PUT option on the SPY ETF as part of my Trading Plan in future - my equivalent of the GSL, it will no doubt affect returns. Any advice on this is appreciated. Bottom line for me - do the course/s, become part of the TP family, capitalise on the filtered trade ideas, take the trades and hopefully achieve the desired results for the long term. This has been my personal experience with TP, I am not "shilling", "sockpuppeting" or "Danieling" here, so please don't have a go at me.
So here it is, my complete results for the past 5 months, all trades ideas from TP, every winner and every loser, laid bare for judgement as to whether or not a Scam has been perpetrated on us. I don't think so. The Learned ones here have always insisted on proof so I have sent Joe my Original Trading statements (36 in total) from IG Markets that support these results..... It has been a massive effort on my part to do this. I feel quite exposed. However, I am happy to now continue to post monthly results in this format.
Would love to hear from others who are actively trading US options using Daniel Kertcher's TP trade ideas, whether successfully or otherwise (on this thread or you can PM me).