Customer Reviews

Cybernetic Trading Strategies: Developing a Profitable Trading System with State-of-the-Art Technologies

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There are only few books available on the subject (which comes at no surprise, as people who know how to write such a book would get tons of money just applying these methods, rather than writing a book). Chapters on basic consepts are worth reading, looks like the author knows what he is talking about. It includes intermarket analysis, seasonal trading and trading using technical indicators. More advanced subjects, such as neural networks, genetic algorithms, machine learning, statistics and others are very weak. Look somewhere else if you want more info on this.

This book focuses on intramarket trading rountines, by which I mean using one market to estimate the behavior of another before it happens. This idea was first introduced by John Murphy. However, he did not, at that time, present trading paradigms.

In my opinion, Ruggerio does not intend this book to be a complete exposition on intermarket trading systems, much less on "cybernetic trading strategies." He does present enough examples to show the way to develop your own, presumably more sophisticated intermarket systems. Ruggerio really doesn't attempt to program and use technical analysis, nor does he claim to. His discussion of neural nets and genetic algorithms are very introductory. These are, however, topics that require at least a book each, absent a very good background by the reader.

In short, this is a pretty decent idea book, or rather approach book dealing with computer driven trading systems which use intermarket analysis. Personally, I think it's a useful book, even though I don't use the approach: I'm more technically oriented.

If you are looking for a definitive approach to using modern math to make a zillion dollars while you watch basketball, this isn't the book. Of course, you won't find that book, but that is a different discussion. Don't go here for neural nets or genetic algorithms, either. See Goldman(?) for the latter. I'm no help for the former.

I should note that this book is aimed at commodity traders. Stock traders can make use of the techniques by translating "commodity name" to "sector name," assuming one uses sector analysis.

I like this book because it is easy to read, it is short and has a good overview of morden methods for stock and commodity trading. Unfortunately author does not give any essential details or any mathematical justification for advanced method like MEM or Chaos and others except for emotions "how wonderful it is" with additional references to other sources that of course, cost money. So I find it difficult to use this book "to develop a profitable system with a state of the art technologies" because it does not have crucial details and therefore I put 3 star for my failed expectations. I recommend this book as an overview only.

The only value this book has is in the section on cycles. I ordered some of the software designed by Ruggero in order to run a few of the studies discussed in the book. I rapidly lost faith in it's contents after learning that my order taker on the other end of the phone line was Ruggerio himself. Why would any succesful trader who purports to have designed systems producing millions of dollars also work as an operator?

If you want a good overview of Technical Analysis, Artifiial Intelligence, and their combination, this is a good starting point. They do give you some pointers, but that doesn't start until 3/4 the way through. There is no math in this book! You'll need something much more in-depth to actually build a system. But if all you want is to see what techniques are out there, this book fares well.

There are some very interesting concepts in here, but I doubt that they will enhance your bottom line. Of course these systems are profitable (they're backtested), but by how much? Simpler systems will probably do better, I know basic volatility systems will. Maybe all the tests should have been run with a moving average crossover system as a base line?

There are many intermarket relationships, but I feel they are better used as a general guide, not hard and fast rules to trade another market.

Some of the concepts are hard to understand even for the mathmatically inclined. Does trading need to be this difficult? No, not for these returns.

Unless you are looking for something specific that he covers here, there are better books out there.

I found Cybernetic Trading Strategies very informative and useful. As other reviews suggest it is not for the trader who is just coming out of the gate. However, for those with some trading experience, as well as some programming (Easy Language) experience, it can be the door that leads to the next level. I haven't found anything else out there like it. Also, the book generated many additional questions that went beyond the scope of the book. It was a pleasure to be able to pick up the phone and talk to Mr. Ruggiero directly. He is first and formost a systems developer, but he also trades his own stuff. Some books are mostly "fluf" but this book contains many solid ideas. I'd list it as one of the top 5 trading books I've read as well as the best one on intermarket analysis.

For the date this book was written it did an excellent job at analyzing the market. Some things were far fetched but worth the read for mechanicalized trading.

I have taken considerable time to compare what I have seen and read in this book with other writings in this area of recent. Even with the passage of almost two years since it's publishing, there is still little of substance to challenge this work by other writings, which serves to justify many of the claims (tested and proven) here. I find it odd that the reviewer from NY would reduce his subjective evaluation of the book simply because Ruggiero answered the phone. This is most certainly a subjective reflection. Many would consider it an opportunity to speak directly with an author, as opposed to an underling. (Mr. Ruggiero states in other work that his focus is on research, not on marketing. Do we want everyone to know this? I don't.) In my own experience with the office, I left a message on voice mail with some specific requests. Lo and behold, a mailer which addresses my specific area of interest was sent to me promplty, along with a catalog, just as I had asked. How many times have we left messages or spoken with receptionists and had NO followup? The lessons to be applied are equally subjective, depending on the perspectives gained from prior experiences. The glass is either half full or it's half empty. You decide.

After reading endless books about "How to" develop and implement systems, I was unable to "develop" and "implement" any sytems with satisfactory level of outcome. However, with the help of this book which goes deep to the core of systems designs and trading strategies, i have now improved considerably my systems' performance. I recomend this books for those serious traders, but there is a pre-condition, you must have at least some programming background. I would like to congratulate Ruggiero and to suggest that he goes further into those topics covering Neural Network, Machine Learning M., and Genetic Algorithms.