SPY System Performance vs. Market since first trade

    Posted by burkmere on 18th of Oct 2011 at 10:18 pm

    The single entry Spy System has produced a gain of 2.3% since it's first buy April 11th. The S&P is down 7.5% since the close on April 11th. So, the SPY System has outperformed the S&P by 9.8% since inception.

    Keep in mind the Spy System performance also includes that one big 8.47% loss.

    It would be nice, however, if it was catching more of this extreme volatility. We shall see what happens during the next six month period. The SPY System has now over six months trading history.

    SPY System has outperformed the S&P

    Posted by baryaj0806 on 20th of Oct 2011 at 03:56 pm
    Title: I think not!

    My 10k invested...

    Posted by copycatbth on 20th of Oct 2011 at 11:13 pm

    FWIW, I started with 10k and am doing the single entry in my 401k. My plan has been to reinvest the amount that I have been left with after each trade. In other words, I didn't put 10k in each time, but the amount I had left after each trade. I go long the spy and use SH when I get the alert to short. I have not deviated from the system since I joined and I am not a day trader. This is my first time posting.

     As of today, 10/20/11, and although we are still in this trade, I am down about 300 dollars. If I add the 600 dollars to be a member (and in this SPY system), I am down $900. So I am down about 9%.

    Happy? Not really. I would have been better off doing nothing for the past 6 months. I feel like I have just donated my money to BPT.

    copycabth - 10,000 is not enough to trade this system!

    Posted by matt on 22nd of Oct 2011 at 02:38 am

    copycatbth - honestly $10,000K is probably too low of an amount to trade the SPY with this system.  Let's say the system made 10% in a year so you made $1000 on your $10K, however when taking into account website membership fees you made no money for the year since you are spending about 1000 a year in membership fees.  Yes the system can have years where it makes 50% or 80%, but that's not the norm, the norm has been about 35% and there have been quite a few years where the system made less:  In 2005 the system made only 10%, in 2004 the system made only 15%, 2006 the system made 20%, even at 20% are only making 10% after your membership fees.  Again I think 10K is way too low to trade the SPY adequately for this system.

    You could use SSO or use margin, but you know how I feel about that, I don't support it and I don't think people should be using margin because they get into trouble with it. 

    Hi Matt, Thanks for the input

    Posted by copycatbth on 23rd of Oct 2011 at 12:27 pm

    Hi Matt,

    Thanks for the input (on 10k being to small amount) and for the 10% rule you added. I wanted to keep going with your SPY system, but I was wondering if it was worth another 600 dollars to continue.

    I apologize for adding the BPT membership into my calculations. Smile

    I can understand you feelings

    Posted by tom on 21st of Oct 2011 at 08:59 am

    I can understand you feelings but your comparing taking risk vs not taking risk.  Anytime you take risk and it doesn't work or isn't working then having taken no risk will look optimal.  I think you first decided to take risk and then comparing apples to apples is how you honestly feel you would have done managing your own funds.

    Tom the system has not

    Posted by chlo888 on 21st of Oct 2011 at 02:26 pm

    Tom the system has not performed as it was advertised...that's my point..

    performed as advertised?  Come on,

    Posted by matt on 21st of Oct 2011 at 02:43 pm

    performed as advertised?  Come on, there are no guarantees to systems, none.  All that was advertised is how the system has down in history back to 1995 and from last Nov 10 to April 10 when I had it mostly developed and had live trades on my side.  The history before last Nov was fine and it was also fine up until May, and remember the system was mostly developed by last Nov, so I treat the trades from Nov 10 - May as live tested trades.  That's all that was advertised, we guaranteed nothing about a system's future, no site out there does because you just can't do that.  Any system can stop working at any time, you hope that it continues, but no one can guarantee that.

    Anyway I'll do an in-depth analysis this weekend.  From what I can see, the profit curve looks fine still.  Remember this system has like 17 years of history, so unfortunately it still may be too early to say that it's broken, but again I'll cover that on the weekend with my profit curve analysis.

    Right now from Jan 2001, the system would be up about 8%, now obviously we didn't release it until May, but I'm looking at the yearly %.  Back in 2005, the system only made 10% the whole year (which was much lower then the average yearly returns), and given the fact that we still have a few months until year's end, the system may still end up matching that paltry 10% return.    The system had a stellar 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, so maybe it's just due for one of these low return years, and since it was started nearly mid year, it didn't get the first gains from Jan - Apr.  

    All I ask, is, keep your emotions at bay, this is why the general public loses money, they get over emotional about things.  Unfortunately systems always carry a degree of risk, nothing is guaranteed in life, but again I'll do an in-depth analysis of the profit curve and trades this weekend with additional thoughts about where we go from here.  

    By the way, i always

    Posted by shinings on 21st of Oct 2011 at 03:29 pm

    By the way, i always know that this kind of system does best in strong bull and bear market, while not so good in sideways market. Unfortunately since launch, we have been in a sideways (transitional) market (in longer time frame) hence the low performance. If you look at shorter time frame, it was also at the turning point from bull to bear that we experienced the biggest loss for the system. Now, we may be in another transition from bear to bull again, and i won't be surprised if the current trade turns into a loss as well.

    Am i second thinking the system? no. and i for sure could not predict when sideways market is coming, so i let the system do its thing. At the time i signed up, i already knew this so i'm not emotional and won't blame the system.

    Correct me if i'm wrong, Matt. I just want to know more about the system.

    Matt - very good points

    Posted by shinings on 21st of Oct 2011 at 03:20 pm

    Matt - very good points here. I agree that no system can ever guarantee any results by itself.

    But as the owner and seller of this SPY system, you and all of us members are sharing something in common, that is "to make profits off of it". In my mind, I'm completely ok with paying $ for a system that does well. And i believe you set the price based upon a premise, which is the 17-year backtest, which is what got me and people here interested. However since launch, call it luck or unluck, the performance wasn't on par with the premise it was based on. Therefore, I think some relief on the membership fee or something would be very much appreciated by all the members who are all going thru difficult times. At the same time, one can argue if the system does exceptionally well (better than the history data), can you raise the membership fee some and will people still like it? I don't know. I think we all ought to ask this question to ourselves.

    Again, as you can see i'm trying to be unbiased and look at the situation from both sides. But emotions are built-in in all human beings, and please don't take offense if any of the comments here get "too sensitive". Ultimately, like i said, we all share something in common - "to make profits from the system". Nobody is trying to do anything harmful to the system (or the community here), at least not intentionally. That's the bottom line.

    BTW, can't wait to see your analysis over the weekend.

    Cheers!

    I don't think that is

    Posted by tom on 21st of Oct 2011 at 02:39 pm

    I don't think that is a fair point.  I would be the first to wish we had better results but to say "as advertised" you imply there was some guaranteed return implied or promised and that was never the case.

    look at it from the

    Posted by chlo888 on 21st of Oct 2011 at 03:13 pm

    look at it from the subs viewpoint...you build a history of performance with the system...why do you do that? because it shows how the system has performed and that's why subs paid to use it...well the system has underperformed during our sub..I don't see what's wrong with my comment. It's not emotional and just states the truth that the system has not performed as well as brkpt thought it would..Tom just said he wishes the system had better results...I have never griped about anything at Brkpoint so I'm not one to be negative on the site...

    risk

    Posted by Michael on 21st of Oct 2011 at 12:41 pm

    Tom -

    But we started out thinking we were trading a system with defined risk based on 16 years of backtested history.  The largest loss was 3.6% and that was called an outlier.  Good enough.  Then with that 8%+ loss which was almost triple the largest historical loss -- and with no defined stop built into the system, we were suddenly trading a system with undefined risk.  I know for me personally it caused me, rationally, to cut way back on position size, since I have no idea what my risk is, and this will now mean it takes much longer to recoup that loss.

    Thanks for sharing Michael.  My

    Posted by tom on 21st of Oct 2011 at 01:40 pm

    Thanks for sharing Michael.  My point regarding risk when responding to that specific post was, IMO, you cannot compare following a system or trading in the markets in general to shoving money under the mattress, that is not apples to apples.  When I buy a car and it becomes a lemon I might think back about the other car I test drove and should have bought but I would not say "man I knew I should have just walked". 

    Tom -- I've been at

    Posted by Michael on 21st of Oct 2011 at 02:57 pm

    Tom -- I've been at BPT for many many years.  I like Matt a lot and I respect his work.  But I don't think you are really answering what people are saying. 

    In response to copycat you are saying that deciding to take risk is not the same as not taking any risk.  I am saying that risk that we are taking turns out to be different from the risk we thought we were deciding to take.  And actually, right now, I do not even know what the risk is.  Do you?  what's the defined risk of trading the system? 

    Well technically I don't believe

    Posted by tom on 21st of Oct 2011 at 03:37 pm

    Well technically I don't believe either of you asked me a question or I didn't see it so I was commenting more on your comments.

    The SPY System has had the same risk it always had, nothing changed.  Maybe some people used past performance as an indication of future performance.  The way I handle risk is through allocation.  I generally look at a system as potentially going to zero (maybe not in one trade especially since it is a large ETF but that's how I handle it) and then start with an appropriate allocation and work from there and then increase or reinvest profits.  Now I am slightly conservative but I start with my net worth and then allocate savings and then investing and trading and the SPY is apart of my trading etc.  I am also young, or at least I am told I am Laughing.  But what would I say the risk for the SPY System is, I used zero and allocated accordingly but decided I would always reinvest profits.  I also trade other strategies and styles so there have also been cases for me personally where I may already be long or short when the system might want to go long or short etc. and then I have to evaluate what works best for me.  Do I ignore the signal, double up, hedge etc.

    How did you first decide what to allocate?  Did you trade the SPY or leveraged vehicles? 

    Tom -- once aqain, you

    Posted by Michael on 21st of Oct 2011 at 08:54 pm

    Tom -- once aqain, you know I am a very long term guy here, and I don't mean to beat a dead horse - but are you saying that you approach the spy system assuming that the trade could in theory go to zero, and you allocate accordingly?  That makes no sense.  What would be a rational allocation for a trade with the risk of losing all your money? I really don't get it.  The basic mantra of trading everywhere, including this site, is to set stops, know your exits when you enter the trade, define risk.  If the risk is 100%, I don't know - seems to me there would have to be an awful lot of reward.

    If you assume the trade could go to zero, the only answer I come up with is that the allocation has to be so small relative to account size, that it won't bother you to lose it all.  What would that be -- 2%?  So with a $200,000 trading account, one could put 4000 into the system, un-levereged.  With a 100,000 account it would be 2000 per trade.   Just thinking out loud now, I haven't thought about it until I read your post -- I just don't know if its worth bothering with it for that amount of money. 

    Did I misread your post?

    And don't get me wrong -- I'm trading the system, I've never complained about a trade, and I imagine there is every chance that the current trade could end up very profitable.  I'm not being emotional here, I'm just trying to understand the answers that you are giving.

     

    It does seem like if

    Posted by chlo888 on 21st of Oct 2011 at 03:43 pm

    It does seem like if members voice their displeasure with the system, they are told they are being emotional or they are over leveraged....I don't think that's a fair response since subs are just stating that they sub'ed to something that didn't deliver...at the same time I will be the first to say I did not support the subs who were griping about trades...In fact I made a comment in the past that subs should stop whining about the trades and just have faith in the system...but now that the system sub is coming to an end and the performance has been poor---I don't think the subs got what they paid for or what they believed they were going to get when they looked at years of historical trades initially...

    membership fee

    Posted by skyfish on 21st of Oct 2011 at 10:00 am

    What is the status of the spy membership fee?  Renew date, amount, free time if any, so I can consider what to do next.

    I feel the same way..I

    Posted by chlo888 on 21st of Oct 2011 at 08:34 am

    I feel the same way..I joined BKPT just for the system so I had to pay the membership fee and the spy system fee...Now my membership is ending and all I have done is lose money...

    Definitely the performance has not

    Posted by tom on 21st of Oct 2011 at 09:56 am

    Definitely the performance has not been optimal but as I go back and review the trades, the initial entries still feel like they were putting me in a good position to profit and to that extend I still see the system as valid.  The signals and the rules still seem to be very prudent and still seem to be appropriate for long term involvement in the market.

    I totally understand each member has to decide what works best for them but just looking at the trades again it seems to be the right formula even though so far the results have not been what we would have wished. 

    Also, not referring to anyone in particular and especially not the post I am responding to here, please make sure your posting responsibly and respectfully.  The website, system, administrators and other members are not pinatas.

    I really don't think anyone

    Posted by oreo on 21st of Oct 2011 at 01:27 pm

    I really don't think anyone here has been disrespectful, if anything, I think especially in the beginning, members were afraid to voice their true criticisms because they didn't want to be asked to leave.

    I think members should be able to make criticisms of the system both good and bad. Sometimes it helps to have other opinions too.

    The membership fee to the system is steep compared to the performance and there had been mention of some "free time". Since then, no one has addressed that.

    Obviously I don't agree or

    Posted by tom on 21st of Oct 2011 at 01:51 pm

    Obviously I don't agree or else I wouldn't have posted the comment.  I encourage members to voice their opinion but I think calling the system a "debacle", implying Matt pushed the system out to the public to get revenue and never tested it as well as other like comments is antagonistic and inappropriate and thus my comment.

    I have no update on the question of added time.  I think Matt plans to address the issue in a post, email or Newsletter soon.  If nothing over the weekend I can post an update Monday but again as it stands now there is no policy in place to extend memberships.

    I'm not sure what happened

    Posted by oreo on 19th of Oct 2011 at 02:07 pm

    I'm not sure what happened to my earlier post (possibly removed?) but I was simply stating a fact regarding costs associated with membership and how that impacts statistics as well.

    I had stated in so many words that based upon a $10,000 trading account, 2.3% would be a gain of $230 but with memberships costs included ($600 for 6 months), this would actually not be a gain at all. I think it's fair to look at this in a critical way especially with the recent performance over 6 months of the system.

    I can also state that most people that have a membership at Breakpoint Trades are not buy and holders but traders. So the fact that the index lost money in that period probably doesn't apply to most here to use for comparison.

    burkmere, My data is slightly different

    Posted by kbgupta on 19th of Oct 2011 at 10:09 am

    burkmere,

    My data is slightly different from yours. I have we started on 5/5 (I don't have any record of being part of the profitable 4/11 trade). So if we use the 5/5 start point, single entry system with complete reinvestment of profits vs SPY buy&hold

    5/5 trade to the 9/15 trade: SPY system = 0.72%

    5/5 to 9/27 SPY buy&hold = -12.03%

    Realtime as of now: SPY system = -2.46% and Buy&Hold = -8.56%

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