Customer Reviews

Seven Trading Systems for the S&P Futures: Gap Strategies to Day Trade the Opening Bell

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Potential purchasers of this book should be aware of what this is and is not. What it is: it is exactly what the title says- 7 gap strategies with the Tradestation ("TS") code for trading the ES (and TF and EMD). What it is not: anything more than that.

It is just 90 pages- but for me, they are packed with value. The charts (showing minute charts of the ES) and the reports (TS performance reports) are very clear. The description of the strategies is clear.

Do they work? I am not very skilled in TS, but I was able to copy the 2 of most interest to me (Gap Fill-1 and Gap Continuation-1), correct my typos, set up the workspaces, deal with a maxbars problem, and get them working. If you knew my minimal coding ability, you would be impressed!

The reports in the book cover the 5 years before June, 2010. I tested the period after. Gap Fill-1 gave a Net Profit per Trade (NPT) of $54 in the 5 year period used by the book; I got just $15 since. Gap Continuation-1 on the TF gave a NPT of $265 in the book. For me since then, it was $202 (both using the TF). I will start auto-trading this, but just watch the Gap Fill-1 system.

If you use TS, this is a great value for the small price. For me, there was a bonus- it helped in my TS coding skills. It also helped to see how the author developed his ideas. I am sure I will take some of these ideas to help develop and improve my own trading.

What if you don't use TS? Well, you won't be able to try modifications, nor will you be able to try different markets. However, you will be able to manually trade the 7 gap strategies. The entry and exit conditions, including stops, are clearly set out. They are not complicated (except in 1 system). You should make up the cost of the book very quickly.

I am a hard marker- this only the second 5 star review I have given. I have given it 5 stars based on solely its value to me. I hope, though, I have given you enough information to evaluate what its value to you would be.

This book has some fantastic strategies which are tradable right of the bat, but the real value is the insight it provides into the process of strategy development. Gap strategies have been well known among traders for a long time, but this is the first book I've come across which outlines a detailed approach to profiting from opening gaps. All too often, trading books advocate strategies which are based on vague chart formations or other untestable methods. The methods in this book are quantified and proven, with a simple approach that can easily be modified to suit your own specific trading goals. Highly recommended.

I give this book a high rating based on how profitable the strategy has been since I purchased it in September. 90% of the trades have been winners on the Gap Fills and I have seen a good return on my investment. It is definitely a short book but written briefly and to the point providing the specific information for setting up the trading systems as well as backtests to prove the results. This is one of the few trading books that I have purchased that show specific trading rules and results as most of my other trading books are much lengthier (and better written) but show methods that are hard to duplicate. It is mainly for futures traders and the Tradestation platform, however I was able to convert it to MT4 and trade it on the ETF's as well.

The "book" is actually a long article. It has a formal length of 90 pages, but with big letters and (very) wide spacing. (so, don't worry you can read it without your glasses on).
If you take normal printing as a basis, I would estimate this closer to 30 - 40 pages (the figures from tradestation are, however, normal size, otherwise my estimate would be even lower.

The book presents some system ideas (of the kind you find in many blog posts and discussion groups on the internet). The main benefit of the book is that it details the ideas down to working TS code.
If you are interested in the quality of these ideas, you should download [...]
and check out the Gap fill strategies contained therein. As obviously the strategies are optimized on the range till mid 2010, you should focus your attention on the time since then. As you will see in further forward trading the strategies did not perform extremely well, which is just what someone would expect from (over-)optimized strategies. (Ok, they were also not disastrous, though.)
If I would have seen this beforehand, I would have probably not bought the book in the first place.

The book is written on a level appropriate for someone new to strategy design. But on the other hand, these will probably miss several important background information that is not in the book. For example, the strategy discussion does not take trading cost (or TS-cost) into account. The full benefits that are always given are for 5 years. Both factors help to give very positive results.

Finally, from a "book perspective". Typesetting and binding of the book is fine. Also the color graphics are well reproduced, so it is easy and nice to read. The form of discussion is also very easy to follow. There are spelling and grammar errors (even word repitions), so it does not give the impression that much effort went into proof reading.

As we are all aware 95% of all trader lose money in the markets. Why? Because 99% of all trading books and seminars teach systems and techniques that simply just don't work! Most of the authors hide this fact by simply 1) not giving you their system code, 2) not showing you a long term equity curve that proves that the system is either good or worthless, 3) not sharing performance data such as profit ratio, Sharpe number, etc. All you get is a bunch of convoluted trading signal instructions and hype that the untested system is great.

Dave shares his system code, supplies long term equity curves, and uses TradeStation to create the system performance summary data. I've tested his mechanical systems and they work, and work quite well as advertised.

Mr. Bean owes me big-time for endorsing his book, but I believe that he's one of the few honest authors out there whose systems deliver as promised. I suspect that they will also work well for the high-volume ETFs like SPY, DIA, and QQQQ, and perhaps several high volume traded stocks like IBM, INTC, and MSFT. In my opinion this book is more useful than 99% of the +$10,000 trading seminars/courses out there. So grab it before Dave comes to his senses and raises the price.

As for the other 99% authors: Some one once said that "Any trading system can be profitable... as long as you sale enough copies of it."

This book is exclusively for Tradestation users, the title should be something like "Seven TRADESTATION Trading Systems For The S&P Futures". I have an equities trading account with another brokerage and use their realtime data and charting for my S&P futures trading also, I do not use Tradestation and therefore cannot use the code or backtesting in this book, the book is dedicated entirely to Tradestation.

I purchased the book thinking that it was an overview of seven unique trading strategies for opening gaps but I was dissapointed. And, the book is very cheaply done, it reminds me of those "print when ordered" books that are sold on the web. I honestly would like to have my money back.

Most all trading books are filled with filler and fluff. Mr. Bean doesn't waste your time with chart patterns, trend lines, or how you should complete your trading journal with honest confessions. Instead, Mr. Bean simply presents his evidence accompanied with statistical output. In short, Mr. Bean is the real deal. The systems presented are the result of hard work and honest effort.

If you are looking for magic, then this is not the book for you. If you want to learn how a professional trader consistently beats the market...this is the book you need.

Never knew so many types of Gap Openings existed. Easy to understand with good illustrations. Gave me new insight into trading the gap. A must have and highly recommended. D.M., Pensacola, FL.

I bought this book, since the title caught my eyes, there aren't a lot of S&P futures day-trading books out there that are useful, and this guy is a developer, which is a common point with me. Overall, this books is mediocre at best. It's only 90 pages, and if you take all the pictures away (which aren't that useful), maybe it's about 40. The author slapped the stuff together - that is quite obvious - as there are numerous grammatical and spelling typos throughout. Overall, a disappointment. The author does offer backtesting results, which you don't see in print often, but I need to verify his results on my own. Based on his careless writing skills, I cannot trust his statistics implicitly. He uses Tradestation as his backtesting platform, and I will need to confirm his results with my own platform. If his results confirm accurately, I may come back and give him 3 stars, instead of 2.